A Sense of Momentum: Mobility practices and dis/embodied landscapes of energy use

This research examines how the commute practices of driving, cycling, and
walking shape individuals’ sense of mobility energy use. Some scholars argue that
diff erent modes of mobility produce diff erent ways of knowing the world. For instance,
automobiles are accused by some of alienating their drivers, whereas others see the
human-machine hybrids they create as inherently connecting. This paper is founded upon
an epistemological position that sees knowledge as developed through sensual interactions
with environments and held, sometimes inexpressibly, within the body. Transportation
technologies, both as part of a person’s environment and as an extension of themselves,
mediate these interactions. The research draws on in-depth interviews with drivers, cyclists,
and pedestrians commuting in the City of Vancouver, and their commute narratives and
GPS logs, to compare the sense of energy use between mode users. Participant senses
explored include the feeling of momentum, changes in elevation, and stopping. Data
analyses reveal active-mode users’ nuanced and sometimes tacit awareness of energy use,
and how this embodied knowledge both consciously and unconsciously informs their
mobility. The effi ciencies gained through this tacit knowing should be recognized alongside
the more common ‘neotechnological’ approaches to transportation energy conservation,
and accounted for in planning, public policy, and law.