Decisions about motor transport, by individuals and policy-makers, show unconscious biases due to cultural assumptions about the role of private cars - a phenomenon we term motonormativity. To explore this claim, a national sample of 2157 UK adults rated, at random, a set of statements about driving (“People shouldn't drive in highly populated areas where other people have to breathe in the car fumes”) or a parallel set of statements with key words changed to shift context ("People shouldn't smoke in highly populated areas where other people have to breathe in the cigarette fumes"). Such context changes could radically alter responses (75% agreed with "People shouldn't smoke... " but only 17% agreed with "People shouldn't drive... "). We discuss how these biases systematically distort medical and policy decisions and give recommendations for how public policy and health professionals might begin to recognise and address these unconscious biases in their work. — Abstract, Motornomativity: How Social Norms Hide a Major Public Health Hazard
My first reaction on seeing the term motonormativity was probably to roll my eyes, since it's a fashion-conscious coinage in line with heteronormativity and neuronormativity. — Jamal
Sometimes you need to put a name on something to make it real — Jamal
I'm glad you brought up the issues about rural communities. I've seen quite a lot about re-designing cities, but practically nothing about rural communities. Your description of Kentucky is very reminiscent of many rural areas of the UK, right down to the problems of equine traffic. (No Amish communities, of course, but many riders for leisure and pleasure. Horses and cars, etc. don't mix very well.) You don't mention heavy lorries on your lanes. But I find them more worrying than anything else.I now live in rural Kentucky and here things are truly, completely unwalkable. — Count Timothy von Icarus
I'm sure it is a cultural rite of passage in many other countries as well. It certainly is in the UK.Here in the US, being able to drive is a cultural rite of passage. When I was 16, I got my license on the day after my birthday. The sense of freedom it gives is powerful. Of course, that is partly because getting around without a car is difficult, but still, it's very compelling. — T Clark
I'm sure there's a tendency for people to choose to live further apart when they have cars. But, if you look at the schemes in the OP, they are all in cities.I also suspect that population density is indirectly correlated to motonormativity wherever cars are readily available. — Leontiskos
It's a vicious circle. Lower density, less public transport, more cars. Moving away from cars in those areas is going to be very difficult indeed. Fewer people in a given area have less political clout.This kills public transportation because you need a certain level of density to make light rail, etc. economically viable. — Count Timothy von Icarus
I thought that "car-centric" was the standard word for this.I remember seeing the casual use of 'car-centric' or variations often. — Lionino
Motonormativity, a term coined in a recent study, describes an unconscious bias in favour of cars and motor transport generally. It is the automatic prioritization of the needs of cars over the needs of pedestrians and cyclists, which results in an inability to make impartial judgments. Curiously, the study found that even non-drivers harbour this bias. — Jamal
The sense of freedom it gives is powerful. — T Clark
My first reaction on seeing the term motonormativity was probably to roll my eyes, since it's a fashion-conscious coinage in line with heteronormativity and neuronormativity. But on second thoughts, I think it's good. Sometimes you need to put a name on something to make it real, or rather, to allow people to think about it clearly in familar contemporary terms. — Jamal
I thought that "car-centric" was the standard word for this. — Ludwig V
It's a common American (and I assume elsewhere) social trope/meme whatever you wish to call it that a teen with a car is "cool" or otherwise desirable to his peers versus someone who does not and has to walk or take a scooter. So it's about being in possession of the greatest item or object desirable to society, mostly for superficial reasons, but also supported by the factual beneficial and general status reasons that come with. Isn't it? — Outlander
I think you've got a point there. But I always thought that the critical factor was the hills. The Netherlands are flat or nearly so. I'm not sure about Brussels. But the availability of cycle lanes - especially where there is heavy traffic, especially where roads are narrow - is also thought to be persuasive. But it takes time for people to change their ways.From my experience, bikes are used more in small/concentrated cities than big/spread-out ones. — Lionino
I would suggest the risk of designing your life oblivious to the dangers of lethal moving machines probably influences the over-all attitude toward accommodating cars. — AmadeusD
Yes, but it is also about being able to access opportunities, both work and social, that would not be practicable otherwise. And so you end up with the car being essential to your way of life. `So it's about being in possession of the greatest item or object desirable to society, mostly for superficial reasons, but also supported by the factual beneficial and general status reasons that come with. Isn't it? — Outlander
Well, people do like a moral justification. It is so much nobler than self-interest. But you are right that the politics of this are much more complicated than the pictures show and realism is more helpful.But also the move to this kind of moralistic framing – motonormativity as the code word for a defective mindset – is a problematic political position. — apokrisis
That's odd. I thought it took two to make a fight.And the criticism concerning wokeism is that it is a turning of individuals against individuals by harnessing the amplification of social media. — apokrisis
I'm not sure about Brussels — Ludwig V
especially where there is heavy traffic, especially where roads are narrow — Ludwig V
I wouldn't want to comment on the government is Sao Paolo. But, in principle, because they don't go bankrupt (or not often - it does happen, though they don't call it bankruptcy), they can take a long view and persuade/manipulate people into adopting new ways.The government however doesn't go bankrupt, so they don't care as much. — Lionino
There's nothing like getting the people on your side. Without a doubt, it is the most effective engine for social change.even though there is no separate bike lane, cars and buses mostly respect that bikes may ride on the slow rightmost lane. — Lionino
That's odd. I thought it took two to make a fight. — Ludwig V
Of course, when I'm driving, I get annoyed at the pedestrians and other cars that are in my way. When I'm walking, I get annoyed at the other pedestrians and cars that get in my way. — Ludwig V
There should be even more pressure than there is already to separate pedal cycles from cars and other lethal heavy machinery. That's also just common sense. — Ludwig V
Here in NZ, cycles are legal on footpaths — AmadeusD
It’s illegal to ride a cycle on footpaths unless you’re delivering mail or the cycle has very small wheels (wheel diameter less than 355 millimetres). As well as people walking, footpaths can be used by people on push scooters, e-scooters, skates, skateboards, and other similar ways of getting around.
https://www.nzta.govt.nz/roadcode/code-for-cycling/paths-cycle-lanes-and-bus-lanes
Yes, I'm afraid that when human beings find something they don't like in their environment, they prefer to remake the environment by eradicating the offending items to adjusting themselves to it. This is so pervasive that I'm not at all sure that it can be attributed to solely to social structures.Should you even be allowed to exist with those views within a shared social system. — apokrisis
Yes, but again, I think you'll find that addiction is so pervasive that it seems to go deeper than social structures or cultures.So motonormativity is in fact a generalised modern impatience. A reflection of accelerationism in a society addicted to faster/cheaper/more. — apokrisis
I'm sorry, but I'm not sure exactly what you are saying. Too many dots.Here in NZ, cycles are legal on footpaths (we have a massive, shit-headed Green Lobby here that are insufferably stupid) and .......................................................... bus lanes. — AmadeusD
OK. Sorry I misunderstood.That was my point. Left and right used to be about social and economic policy settings. A debate over the right national system. Now it has shifted to identity politics. — apokrisis
I'm sorry, but I'm not sure exactly what you are saying. Too many dots. — Ludwig V
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