Samenvatting
The most commonly perceived attractions of car ownership are seen in this paper as: a sense of protection from the outside world; interactions with a predictable machine; the association between the car and sexuality; a sense of status; and a sense of group identity. The authors treat this attachment as a kind of "love affair", and ask various questions about the basis of the relationship such as how people form personal attachments to their cars, the role of the media and signs of disenchantment. The authors view is that this information should be useful for policy makers trying to encourage use of public transport and decrease use of private transport.