Automobility refers to the continued, self-perpetuating dominance of privately-owned, gasoline-powered vehicles used primarily by single occupants—a system which clearly has broad environmental and societal impacts. Despite increasing societal interest in transitions to more sustainable transportation technologies, there has been little consideration of how such innovations might challenge, maintain or support different aspects of automobility, and what that means for technology deployment, transport policy, and user practices. To bring attention to the complexity and apparent durability of the automobility system, in this paper we develop a conceptual framework that explores automobility through a categorization of frames, or shared cultural meanings. This framework moves beyond the typical focus on private, functional considerations of user choice, financial costs and time use to also consider symbolic and societal frames of automobility that exist among users, non-users, industry, policymakers and other relevant social groups. We illustrate this framework with eight particular frames of automobility that fall into four broad categories: private-functional frames such as (1) cocooning and fortressing and (2) mobile digital offices; private-symbolic frames such as (3) gender identity and (4) social status; societal-functional frames such as (5) environmental stewardship and (6) suburbanization; and societal-symbolic frames such as (7) self-sufficiency and (8) innovativeness. Finally, we start the process of discussing several transportation innovations in light of these automobility frames, namely electrified, autonomous and shared mobility—examining early evidence for which frames would be challenged or supported by such transitions. We believe that appreciation of the complex and varied frames of automobility can enrich discussion of transitions and policy relating to sustainable transportation.

Recent developments suggest that the need for contact between parents and adult children is expected to grow, while paid labour is re-organized to include more flexible work schedules and locations. In parallel we view a pressure to increase sustainable mobility through reducing car driving. Against this background, this paper addresses the question: to what extent the frequency of contact between parents and their adult children living out of home is associated with time allocated to work, including commuting time, and with automobility? Face-to-face and telecommunication based contact is considered. Regression analysis of survey data collected in the Netherlands was performed and results suggest that face-to-face contact was significantly associated with work and commute duration, car ownership, car commuting and distance. Telecommunication based contact was mainly associated with work duration, degree of urbanization and distance. Automobility seemed to be more important for women than for men. The policy implication is a potential trade-off between policies that aim at strengthening sustainable mobility behaviour and policies that lead to an increase in the reliance on informal care.

The aim of this thesis is to give a perspective on the development of the Swedish automobility between 1950 and 2007. New knowledge on automobility’s role for economic historical development will be achieved by studying the interaction between the diffusion of the private car on the national and the regional level, and the households’ preferences and the government’s regulations of car ownership. The first paper, Two Sides of the Same Coin?, compares car diffusion in Norway and Sweden to find explanations for the national and regional patterns. We ask whether the slower diffusion in Norway can be explained with national differences in income, institutions, infrastructure and population settlements; or if regional differences in income and population density have affected the outcome? Our conclusion is that car diffusion in Norway and Sweden displays two sides of the same coin; the national levels converged, but the process did not follow the same regional pattern. Regional differences in income and population density have in general been a significant explanation for car density in Sweden, but not in Norway.   The second paper, Driving from the Centre to the Periphery?, examines whether the diffusion of private cars followed the over-all socio-economic and geographical changes in Sweden from 1960 to 1975. In particular, it studies if ownership per capita followed changes in income or changes in population density (urbanisation). The analysis is based on unique Swedish parish-scale census material that includes all private car owners for the years 1960, 1970 and 1975. Our conclusion is that income levels were more important than other explanations for the diffusion of private cars in Sweden between 1960 and 1975. The third paper, ‘En ledande och samordnande funktion’, contributes with new knowledge on how the Swedish government has organised traffic safety in certain ways since the 1950s. The emphasis is on the establishment and closing down of the National Road Safety Office (TSV) and how the changing forms of organisations before, during and after TSV have been reflected in the road plans from 1958, 1970 and 1990. Our conclusion is that the motives for both establishment and closing down of the TSV were the same; to create a more efficient organisation regarding traffic safety. These changes have been reflected in the road plans where an increased control over the infrastructure can be recognised, especially during the last two decades. The fourth paper, A Dark Side of Car Ownership, examines whether improved technical performance with respect to fuel consumption have been counterbalanced through increasing engine power and weight, how such properties are valued by the consumers, and in what way political instruments have affected this development. The analysis is based on historical data covering all car models within the 50 percentiles of new registrations. Our conclusion is that a vehicle purchase rebound effect can be identified since the fuel consumption has decreased over time, while the engine effect has increased. Also, the Swedish car fleet has developed in a setting of political instruments and regulations working in favour of larger and more fuel consuming cars.

This thesis is located at the intersection of several bodies of literature. While material exists on the histories of tourism, the automobile and the family, this combination of literature is previously uncharted territory in the history of British Columbia. By looking at the articles and advertisements published in newspapers and magazines, this work focuses on the dominant discourse surrounding the family and the automobile in postwar British Columbia. Conceptually, it is divided into two sections. The first discusses the role of the automobile in the postwar family, examining ways in which cultural producers framed it as a site of family togetherness and an essential component of modern fatherhood and masculine domesticity. This discourse correlated the automobile’s gendered dynamics with roles of modern parenthood and the experience of childhood, effectively blurring the distinction between the domestic and the public. The second section brings the family automobile into the natural environment, exploring ways in which the automobile and other outdoor technologies shaped the family’s relationship to nature. Through the gendered consumption of goods associated with the outdoors, cultural producers portrayed facilitation of the family’s access to the outdoors as a fundamental component of modern fatherhood.

The identity of the Tin Can Tourists of the World, the first recreation automobile organization, has been poorly defined in the historical discourse, the factors contributing to the 1919 formation of the organization in Tampa, Florida represents a landmark shift in tourism in America towards the automobile. The group’s subsequent solidification of a distinct identity gives insight beyond their organization. The thesis defines their identity as well as looks at their impact on American automobility and tourism. The thesis therefore focuses on the previously undefined concept of recreational automobility giving it definition and showing how the group helped to define it. The group’s early role in mass use and adaptation of the automobile for recreation represents the first steps in creating a market for recreational vehicles. The imposition of organization on the camping experience by the Tin Can Tourists and their influence on creating special places for the practice of their activities helped define recreational automobility. The footprint left by the Tin Can Tourists helped shape part of America’s modern tourist industry. The legacy of their ideas about recreational automobility also suggests influence they had on later groups using recreational vehicles. This thesis examines and clarifies the identity and influence of the Tin Can Tourists of the World as a window on important trends in automobility and tourism.

Autonomes Fahren könnte Autonutzung und -besitz grundlegend verändern – mit erheblichen Auswirkungen darauf, wie mit dem Automobil umgegangen wird, wie Mobilität und Verkehr künftig organisiert und städtebauliche und Verkehrsinfrastrukturen gestaltet werden. Ziel der Arbeit ist es, zu einer frühzeitigen und umfassenden Auseinandersetzung mit der Technik aus empirisch-sozialwissenschaftlicher Sicht beizutragen, sowie wesentliche Einflussfaktoren und Dynamiken der Technikentwicklung zu identifizieren, um diese gestaltend begleiten zu können. Bei technologiebasierter Entwicklung ist eine Vorhersage von möglichen Entwicklungspfaden schwierig, und Akzeptanz gilt als Schlüsselfaktor für die erfolgreiche Produkteinführung. Sie vollzieht sich mittels soziotechnischer Konstruktions- und Veränderungsprozesse und ist abhängig von Personen, deren Einstellungen, Erwartungen und Handlungen, ihrer Umwelt, ihrer Werte- und Normrahmungen sowie Veränderungen im Laufe der Zeit. Diese Parameter werden in der Debatte derzeit noch wenig beachtet. Verschiedene qualitative Methoden bilden die Grundlage für eine erste Exploration und Strukturierung des noch wenig bekannten Untersuchungsgegenstands. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass Akzeptanz des autonomen Fahrens wesentlich vom Zusammenspiel individueller und gesellschaftlicher Einflussfaktoren abhängt – die nicht alleine über Einstellungsparameter erfasst werden können. Sie lassen sich erst vor dem Hintergrund von handlungsleitenden, kollektiven Orientierungen zu aktuellen Autonutzungspraktiken verstehen. Gleichzeitig ist ein konsistenter, in sich geschlossener Entwicklungspfad zum autonomen Fahren derzeit noch nicht absehbar, und es sind einerseits Entwicklungen möglich, die das System der Mobilität grundlegend verändern könnten. Andererseits sind aber auch Veränderungen denkbar, die das bestehende System eher ergänzen, als es radikal zu transformieren. Vor diesem Hintergrund ergeben sich je spezifische Implikationen für die weitere Forschung. / Autonomous driving could fundamentally transform car use and ownership and considerably change the way how we interact with the automobile, how mobility and transport are organized in the future and how urban and transportation infrastructures are designed. The objective of this study is to engage empirical, social sciences in a timely and comprehensive debate on autonomous driving, so the key factors and dynamics of this technological development can be identified and shaped. Forecasting development trajectories of technology-based developments proves especially difficult, and acceptance is thought to be a key factor for a successful product implementation. Acceptance takes place in the context of sociotechnical construction and transformation processes; it is dependent on individuals, their attitudes, expectations and actions, their environment, their value- and norm-framing, and on changes over time. User perception, evaluation and contextualization in relation to autonomous driving have largely gone unheeded, even though they are deemed central to technology acceptance. A set of distinct qualitative methods served to explore and structure a research topic little known to date. In sum, the results indicate that acceptance of autonomous driving fundamentally relies on the interaction of individual and societal factors that cannot be determined through attitudinal parameters only. They are better understood against the background of implicit and habitual orientations towards current car use and ownership practices. At the same time, the studies have shown that a consistent and determined development path cannot be predicted yet. While there are chances for the mobility system to undergo a fundamental transformation with the implementation of autonomous vehicles – on both supply and demand sides – potential changes could also rather complement the existing system. Specific implications for future research will be discussed in the thesis.

The contemporary global automotive industry has persisted, relatively unchanged, since its inception over a century ago. However, it appears that major changes may be underfoot with increasing environmental, social, and economic pressures to improve the industry's long-term sustainability. An alternative model, known as Micro-Factory Retailing (MFR), guided by the emerging field of Industrial Ecology (IE) has been proposed as a possible solution to the industry’s sustainability crisis. This thesis will explore the prospects of MFR in Canada and propose the use of 3D printed electric vehicles as a means to facilitate sustainable system innovation. To demonstrate the feasibility of this proposed technological pathway, three entrepreneurial firms attempting to disrupt the way in which cars are made, sold, and used will be studied. Although the timeline of such a major transition is currently unknown, Canada should act proactively to transition its role in the global automotive sector and lead the way towards a more sustainable automotive ecosystem through MFR. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)