The Pleasures of Driving

The role of the car in society has been the subject of considerable enquiry, both academic and non-academic, including for example, those by Appleyard et al., Brandon, Böhm et al., Featherstone et al., Gartman, McShane, Marinetti, Miller and Setright. ¹ However, despite the highly prevalent nature of driving, few studies focus on the actual act of automobile driving, still less on the cultural, leisure and political characteristics of this globally dispersed activity. In contrast, this chapter (an early exploration within a larger research project) proposes a general structure for understanding how different kinds of driving, at different speeds and on different kinds of road, produce distinct encounters with cities and architecture and, hence, also produce similarly distinct political and cultural experiences. This particular piece focuses specifically on the experience of cities and architecture created by city-based driving at the most commonly driven speeds of approximately 30-55 mph, and in doing suggests that the role of the private car cannot be simply replaced by improved forms of public transport without first understanding, and responding to, the various pleasures and leisure experiences offered by automobile driving. ²