The car-free journey to, and through, parenthood

Abstract

In the context of increasing urgency and interest in the need to reduce private car dependence, it is surprising that we know very little about people who choose to live without cars. This is particularly so for those living through life-stages, and in structural and cultural contexts, generally associated with private car use. Parenting children is one such life-stage. The common understanding is that the vulnerabilities and complexities associated with parenting are best attenuated by the autonomy, security and seclusion of the private car. Others, by choice or circumstance, parent by ‘altermobility’ – without the private car. Using data from in-depth interviews with car-free parents of young children in Sydney, Australia, this paper records how parents come to live without private cars in a city that is dominated by structures, cultures and expectations of private car use. It proposes travel trajectories based on past and present events, experiences and inclinations. In doing so, the paper exposes the sheer complexity of influences of the past on present and future mobility practices, calling into question linear understandings of travel socialisation and mobility biography research. Automobile childhoods, for example, do not necessarily produce car-dependent adults. And the onset of parenthood is not necessarily a time of increased private car attachment. In conclusion, the findings query assumptions about the impact of the early years of parenting on private car dependence, proposing that it is the child, not the infant, that cements the seemingly intractable bond between parenting and private car use.