ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the relationship between transport policy discourses and the culture of travel and mobility, especially the automobile. Mobility has been crucial to US culture and economic development, and auto-mobility has assumed a national status akin to the National Health Service in the UK. There is evidence that younger people are more interested in cyber-mobility than auto-mobility as a cultural medium for networking and social interaction. The leftish journalist and environmental campaigner, George Monbiot, has commented on the extreme libertarianism of the auto-lobby in the UK, accusing it of being part of a political ideology to promote individualism above society. In the specific context of gender and the automobile, an interesting perspective is provided by Margaret Walsh. She provides a feminist perspective on the growth of automobile use among women, which can be traced back to the 1920s, when the era of materialism and consumerism began.
