ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that cars and drivers are implicitly connected in important ways. It argues that cars embody particular cultural attitudes and thus that attitudes extend beyond individuals. A variety of expressions are exemplified in people's experiences of cars and styles of driving often connected with particular cars. The car and the aggressive uses of the car are taken very lightly and its effects on others and the social environment underplayed in the articulations applied to cars such as those evident in advertising. The size of car related quite explicitly to gender. Young women were quite aware of how the more powerful cars made them feel and hence drive differently. Young men also often reported the enticement of a straight stretch of road which 'made them' want to drive faster and often they could not see that driving faster just because the road was straight could be a problem.
