With California’s recent mandates to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and a growing
interest in reducing reliance on private automobiles, Evelyn Blumenberg’s
edited book comes at a critical time. Recent efforts to curb private vehicle use
may help to clean the environment, but at the same time, for many segments of
society a lack of automobility can lead to social exclusion and hinder positive
economic outcomes. Edited by Karen Lucas, Blumenberg, and Rachel Weinberger,
Auto Motives critically evaluates the evidence for better understanding “what
drives us to drive?” It samples the diverse theoretical and empirical
literatures that explain people’s “auto motives” and behaviors. Why do people
overwhelmingly prefer to travel by private automobile, and what are the
critical implications of these private decisions for public policy? The book is
aimed at students, researchers, policymakers, and practitioners from multiple
disciplines who are interested in the role of automobiles in the future.