| Abstract: | ABSTRACTAutomobility lies at the heart of contemporary analysis of the social relations of mobility. Thus far, however, it lacks a history. This article seeks to rectify that omission by interrogating the road traffic accident crisis which afflicted Manchester in the early years of the Second World War. The article proposes a provisional chronology for automobility in twentieth-century Britain: a lengthy phase between 1920 and 1970, dominated by the interests of private motorists, and a modern sub-period between 1970 and the near present. The latter era witnessed a gradual, and then an increasingly rapid, movement towards meeting the needs of non-drivers. |
