ABSTRACT
Consider the relatively individualistic and autonomous act of driving down a road. Before we can even get going, just as one feels the gentle click of the seatbelt into its socket, one’s sense of freedom and expression may immediately slip away. The driver must consciously or unconsciously be directed by a host of limits and directions that he or she must bear in mind (although these depend greatly on the context: see Tim Edensor’s account of Indian motoring in Chapter 5). The limits of one’s speed might be set by a general ‘speed limit’ which is reminded to us by the technology of speed limit signs, cameras and road bumps. Peter Merriman’s (2005a, 2006a, 2006b, 2007) rich accounts of driver regulation in the context of post-war Britain highlight a host of rules and regulations that discipline the driver. In the United Kingdom it is illegal to drive without a seatbelt fastened correctly.
