“I'm on Autopilot, I Just Follow the Route”: Exploring the Habits, Routines, and Decision-Making Practices of Everyday Urban Mobilities

Abstract

Abstract. Much urban and transport policy is based on a series of assumptions relating to predefined journeys informed by rational decision making. For example, the dominant focus of urban pedestrian policy is how the built environment is the primary influence on a person's decision to walk, with these decisions being made at a specific time and place somehow outside the practice of walking. Little attention is given to the importance of the processual and experiential dimensions of walking itself. This paper considers the ways in which journeys into, and through, the city unfold. Specific attention is drawn to how forms of habitual performance, such as practical knowledge and embodied habits and routines, assist in engaging with everyday urban movements. In the context of in-depth research conducted in London, the paper explores the habits and routines of urban pedestrian mobilities such as the daily commute, and in so doing, highlights the complexity and ongoing reconfiguration of these journeys beyond analysis informed by`rational' intention. In contrast to much transport research that conceives of habit as an external force that somehow obstructs more positive sustainable travel behaviour, discussion focuses on the significance of how everyday urban walking unfolds. It is argued that this form of engagement makes it possible to understand habit as situated and part and parcel of the sequentially organised and occasioned performance of journeys on foot. This, in turn, enables the transformative potential of habitual behaviour to be realised. Throughout the paper consideration is given to specific narratives of everyday urban mobilities; the significance of how such practices are actually`talked about'; and how these accounts matter in engaging with the experiential dimensions of urban movement.

Habit, Memory, and the Persistence of Socialist-Era Street Names in Postsocialist Bucharest, Romania

“…They also demonstrate our capability for engaging with new and complex tasks (Highmore 2011). Recent studies of habit have explored the nature of routine mobilities such as commuting (Edensor 2003;Middleton 2011).…”

“…collective) behavior among particular groups or classes and his work "encourages researchers to look for ways in which ostensibly individual habits have some collective dimension" (Swartz 2002, 675) Another strand of recent work has considered habit in the context of everyday life. This work sees habit not as trivial or constraining but as something dynamic, emergent, and full of transformative potential within strategies for coping with the challenges of the everyday (Binnie et al 2007;Thrift 2007;Middleton 2011). Embodied habits provide familiarity and consistency to everyday life but also open up tantalizing possibilities, particularly when established habits are disrupted (Harrison 2000).…”

Recasting the Understanding of Habits for Behaviour-Oriented Policies in Transportation

“…For instance, the continuity hypothesis resonates with practice-based accounts as expressed in [68] (p. 2491) where it is mentioned that in practice theory "instead of conceiving actions as isolated events, agency is seen as a flow of activities in an ongoing process". The link with "ongoing processes and practices" also is explicitly credited in [15] (p. 2858) in enabling a "productive dialogue" between theoretical writings on habits and policy-makers in transportation. Still in the field of transportation, Bissell [69] also proposes a fresh look at the interplay of habits and reflection that shares many aspects on which the framework of habitual practices is grounded.…”

“…Still in the field of transportation, Bissell [69] also proposes a fresh look at the interplay of habits and reflection that shares many aspects on which the framework of habitual practices is grounded. Finally, it is also important to mention Middleton [15] has come to a similar line of reasoning than that of habitual practices in rethinking the role of habits for understanding change in transportation behaviours.…”

“…However, there are many ways to theorise habitual behaviour. In her work on urban mobilities, Middleton [15] (p. 2857) recalls that there has been "a tendency to adopt reductive conceptualisations of habits whereby habit is an external force that somehow drives human behaviour".…”