2025/12/29 by Kostas Mouratidis · 1 voice · 1 citation
Environmental Science · Health Professions · Social Sciences · #Conceptual framework #Conceptual model #Consumption (sociology) #Empirical evidence #Empirical research #Face (sociological concept) #Older Adults Driving Studies #Public transport #Socioeconomic status #Urban Green Space and Health #Urban Transport and Accessibility
paper · doi:10.1016/j.tranpol.2025.103984
published in Transport Policy 178, 103984 (Elsevier BV)
openalex created_date 2025/12/29 · openalex publication_date 2025/12/29 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
Amidst the climate crisis, global car ownership continues to rise. Scholarly literature often emphasizes negative impacts, while under-examining the varied effects on society, car users, and non-users, as well as the benefits that help sustain car dependence. This conceptual paper introduces a new conceptual model that organizes pathways linking automobility to environmental, societal, and individual well-being. Automobility exerts a profound influence on climate change and environmental sustainability, while it has far-reaching implications for human well-being. The effects on human well-being largely depend on contextual factors, such as the degree of car dependency in the built environment, and personal circumstances, including socioeconomic status. Automobility's influence operates at both collective and individual levels, shaping collective societal outcomes as well as individual experiences. Collective outcomes are mostly negative, including traffic fatalities, consumption of public space, and harmful effects on public health. Individual outcomes are unevenly distributed: individuals who rely on cars often derive important benefits such as flexibility, comfort, accessibility to destinations, and job opportunities, whereas non-users face serious mobility disadvantages particularly in car-oriented systems, thus deepening existing inequalities. The paper calls for global reflection and new empirical research that build upon or enhance the model and pathways proposed here. • A new conceptual model of the pathways between automobility and well-being. • The model focuses on both planetary and human well-being. • It includes both positive and negative aspects of automobility. • It explains how automobility shapes individual experiences as well as collective outcomes. • Cities can use the model as a framework to develop mobility plans, assess scenarios, and evaluate investment decisions.