Autonomy and Future Transport Systems

The climate crisis is a key challenge for the future of humanity, and it is generally accepted that transport systems need to be redesigned as part of addressing the crisis. Yet little meaningful policy change has been achieved globally beyond rhetorical commitments to ‘de-carbonisation’. One reason may be that policy makers are nervous about the unpopularity of restrictions to car use. Debates about transport policy and practice tend to be framed by the assumption of a conflict between individuals’ autonomy, which mostly favours car use, and environmentally necessary restrictions to car use. Phrases such as ‘giving up your car’ indicate the perceived personal loss restrictions would lead to. Individual autonomy is highly valued and strongly associated with car use. This paper seeks to contribute to a reframing of debates about transport by first setting aside environmental considerations for the time being and asking instead which ideas for the (re)design of transport systems a focus on autonomy suggests. The paper also seeks to develop the currently limited research which applies philosophical theories of autonomy to transport (see Lomasky 1997; Stradling, Meadows and Beatty 2000; Nordbakke and Schwanen 2014; Martens 2017a, 2017b; and Van Wee 2011). Drawing on current conceptions of autonomy – which include Kantian ones (see e.g. Christman and Anderson 2005; Mackenzie and Soljar 2000; Meyers 1989, 2005; Stoljar 2018) – I will address the question of what kind of principles for the (re)design of transport systems applying the following results in : 1. ‘procedural’ individual autonomy 2. ‘substantive’ individual autonomy 3. ‘relational’ autonomy 4. Kantian moral autonomy For 4. I will include a consideration of how helpful Kant’s distinction between the empirical self and the noumenal self is in this context. The paper will conclude with an outline comparison between the principles for (re)designing transport systems on the basis of autonomy and how transport systems should change to address the climate crisis.