TY - JOUR PY - 2003// TI - The aesthetic experience of traffic in the modern city JO - Urban studies A1 - Taylor, Nigel SP - 1609 EP - 1625 VL - 40 IS - 8 N2 - In spite of the ubiquity of the motor vehicle in modern cities, there has been relatively little study of its impact on our experience of urban life. After summarising the most significant objectively visible impacts of the motor vehicle on urban form, this article offers a phenomenological analysis and account of our aesthetic experience of road traffic, from the points of view of people both inside motor vehicles as drivers or passengers, and outside vehicles as pedestrians or cyclists. Two aspects of our aesthetic experience are described: our sensory experience of traffic, and then how traffic is experienced cognitively, or at the level of meaning. The article identifies various ways in which 'automobility' has come to dominate our contemporary aesthetic experience of cities.

Language: en

LA - en SN - 0042-0980 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0042098032000094450 ID - ref1 ER -