Understanding barriers to sustainable travel: Exploring the persistence of the car culture amongst young people in the UK

Reducing car use is essential to achieve a just, healthy, inclusive, sustainable society.

To do this, we must change travel behaviour. However, this is very difficult to do, because travel behaviour is influenced by many factors, not all of which are under the individual’s control.

This research sought to further understanding of how to tackle one of these determinants of travel behaviour, namely, society and culture.

The car culture, or ideology of automobility, which presents the car as the mechanical embodiment of democracy, freedom, escape, individualism and modernity, was created by governments and the car industry, in the early 20th Century. The backbone of the economy in many western countries, the culture continues to be perpetuated by advertising, movies, music and television. This directly contributes to the continued dominance of the car, reinforcing car ownership and use as a social norm. The culture not only influences individual mode choices, but also the choices of decision makers, including those who determine transport policy and those responsible for planning the built environment and our transport systems.

The presence of the car culture is widely accepted in the literature. This research sought to re-examine the concept, considering recent cultural changes in the western world, particularly the greater concern about the environment amongst the younger generation, popular known as Generation Z, born 1997-2012.

The research was inspired by my teaching on my Transport: Politics and Society module. At the end of the module, students bring examples of the car culture in the music that they listen to. Across three years of teaching, we have observed that the culture is present in every genre, including dance, drill, folk, pop, rap, protest songs – in lyrics and videos. This research sought to formalise this anecdotal evidence, applying reliable research methods to a valid sample to explore the extent to which the car culture continues to be present in popular music today.
This paper reports findings from content analysis of both lyrics and videos the top ten most streamed songs/artists in the UK in 2022. Whilst overt reference to the car was not prevalent, many of the themes that emerged correlate closely with key terms used to describe the car culture. These include:

• Movement as a metaphor for transition, change, progress, freedom, escape.
• Power and powerlessness, restriction, control.
• Materialism, conspicuous consumption, image, halo effect.
• Masculinity, women as both commodities and threats.
• Disorientation, imbalance, deception.

This research concludes that elements of the car culture continue to be present in this limited sample of popular music. The research has been invaluable as a pilot project for future research, providing a strong methodological and theoretical basis on which further research can be developed. The paper will conclude by identifying areas for further research, with the aim of advancing discussion regarding the continued role of music and culture in travel behaviour choices in the UK and, potentially, to further understanding of effective strategies to tackle the continued dominance of the car.