Note d'ouvrage - Nicolas Hatzfeld

Les territoires de l'automobile

Gabriel Dupuy, Anthropos, Paris, 1995, 216 p.

This book analyses the car from a viewpoint which is rare in our network, that of its relationship to space.

Generally speaking, the car started in the cities. But very quickly it overflowed from the urban environment. It contributed to the deconcentration of cities (houses, then industrial and service activities), to the disintegration of their boundaries (semi-urbanized areas), to their decentralization: in short it transformed the city's identity. Opposition to the car was manifested very early on, based on: the loss of time despite the apparent speed; the consumption of space and pollution, the destruction of spaces of proximity, which isolates groups from society (older persons, women, young persons); accidents. This opposition is based on an old and partial view of the city: the latter in fact accompanied the development of the car, which led, as well as the structural changes cited above, to transformations of the countryside (lighting, road signs, car parks, garages, parking, in France

shopping centres and roundabouts).

The car is a point of entry into the automobile system and its spaces: this system presupposes mass production and consumption, standardization. It is a symbol of power, of the mastery of space and time, of freedom. The car has many spaces: first the vehicle itself; then the road network, a travelling space; then practical spaces. Among these spaces, three main types can be identified: the suburban space, in which the car plays an essential role as a direct means of transport or as a means to reach public transport; the "rurban" space, marked by a strong mobility of relationships, a spatial extension, and the significance of European-type cars; the tourist space, with long trips from the city to the countryside or abroad, linked to large cars or to caravans. These types of spaces evolve and become superimposed. Hence multiple car ownership, the transition from the family car to the individual car, leads to the combination of different spaces for the same person. Everywhere, the volume of traffic and the distances travelled increase: limited mainly by the "time budget" of people.

But the development of the automobile system also includes imprisonment in a space which is less and less distinctive, and more and more constraining because over-occupied. How to diversify the spaces within this system is the big challenge at the end of the century. It is already finding expression in "reserved" models, housing, and parking places. Other solutions might be cars specifically for cities (electric cars), the re-conquest of urban neighbourhoods by pedestrians (in fact limited and difficult), the specialization of spaces which are linked by the car. Tolls and information are another route to the diversification of space. Parking and road tolls have been partially imposed. Information runs from simple informative regulations to the development of technologies combining computers and telecommunications.