The recent shift towards recognizing the significance of mobility for society has seen various authors report on both the quantitative increase in people’s mobility within space, and on the new mobility patterns which have emerged over the last few decades (Sheller and Urry 2006; Latham et al. 2009). As cars came into general use in North America and western Europe, for example, largely due to technological development (e.g., the steel and petroleum industries) and governmental measures that promoted the growth of automobile infrastructure (Urry 2007), public (or collective) transport has experienced a significant downturn and now accounts for an average of no more than 20 per cent of all passenger travel in Europe, and even less in North America (Eurostat 2010). Correspondingly, researchers have become increasingly interested in the rise of ‘automobility’ in western society, and its cause and effect.