The art of seduction, but to what? The motor car itself and the car industry are unrivalled in seducing motorists. Seducing, but to which behaviour? Less car use, as implied in the call for papers? This question will be addressed from an external effect point of view, i.e. road safety and pollution control policies. Government traffic policies have targeted behaviour ever since the Roman Empire and behaviour change is essential in transport and environmental policy. Based on the 3-track approach of the National Environmental Policy Plans [1st. Emission standards, 2nd. Reducing [the growth of] car use, 3rd. Improving driving behaviour] the optimal green transport behaviour for achieving the Kyoto CO2 reduction target at household level can be defined in more detail. But reality gives a less rosy picture: a continuous upgrading of vehicle dimensions, weight, engine capacity and power, performance and comfort levels radiates one ideology: MORE=BETTER, CARS ARE FUN. This has nothing to do with the car as a means of transport; yes, as a means of happiness cars are unrivalled machines. The symbolic-affective motives for car ownership and use can explain these hardly researched blind spot in transport science that are as real as travel needs. Car mobility and the automobile lifestyle and car culture are extremely supply-side driven phenomena, and so the car itself is seducing us to see the world from behind the wheel only. These supply-side driven "drivers for automobility" can be assessed through the opportunity/capacity/availability mechanisms for explaining consumer behaviour. The vast economic powers behind it [a real car-industrial-cultural-complex!] and their communication impact must be contained and the physical properties [power/speed/performance/weight/dimensions ] of cars must be downsized as a precondition for really curtailing this seduction potential of modem cars. Without such downgrading any attempt to seduce car drivers to "less car" will fail. Nevertheless, cycling and public transport should be promoted and advanced as primary means of (urban) transport that can compete with the car despite their lack of sex appeal. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting