Reshaping the motor car

Abstract

In previous work on aesthetics and the urban road environment, the authors drew attention to the growing visual disparity between the modern automobile and its urban setting, and suggested a new design approach which would provide some measure of visual integration of cars into the urban landscape, and make them less alien to pedestrians. Here, the authors broaden their critique, exploring the cultural implications of car design, and how cars might be used more effectively to promote mobility while reducing their impact on the urban environment. They argue that conventional fantasies of freedom, speed and power on which the outward form of the modern automobile is presently based, are inappropriate during a period of growing congestion, urban traffic blight, climate change and diminishing fuel resources. The role and function of the automobile must change, and this in turn implies a change in ‘car culture’. Certain processes are already at work, which will assist change in the proposed direction independently of what people actually want. The authors propose additionally a reshaping of the external form of the private car to reflect a new and more environmentally appropriate role, helping, we suggest, to decouple its image from outworn fantasies, and bringing it into the public realm as a more sociable apparatus for modern living.