In Your Car: Road Trip through the American Automobile

a hunger for the road.

Perhaps it is our history as a nation of

people transplanted and transported from

other lands. Or - maybe it's the nature

of living in a vast, open land mass with

freedom to move over it at will. It could be

related to a need for speed - stemming

from our human ancestry as slow, easy prey,

where speed could save your life! But, I

think we drive because it's fun.

Why else would kids, virtually from birth,

so quickly gravitate toward cars large and

small, vrooming them around the kitchen

floor, chirping the tires and tearing up

linoleum roadways? This early sense of

the joy behind the wheel, imaginary at

that age, is replaced by a teenage need for

freedom as we become young drivers in

reality. Teens drive when they can because

they can, even when they have nowhere in

particular to go other than “away” - from

parents, home, school, or anything that

binds them to one spot for longer than ten

minutes. And, they vroom and drive because

it is fun. In fact, as Jersey Girl 013 put

it “When I got my permit, I felt like a child

allowed to be free. I hit a whole new level.”

Over time, our practical concerns mitigate

the fun. As adults, we need to get to

specific places at specific times to do

specific things that we can't even remember

right after we did them. We become taxis

- servants to the wheel as we transfer kid

cargo to school, sports, events, ice cream,

etc. That can really suck the fun out of driving.

And, then, there are the other

drivers. “There are lunatics on the road now”

says Barely Legal 015. “Everyone else's

driving makes me nervous.”

Still, even as fragmented and harried as

daily driving can be, there are moments

when your favorite song comes on the radio,

the breeze blows your hair back and you

belt out time-worn lyrics. You mash the

gas harder to go faster, faster, heart-racing.

You lose yourself to petroleum dreams and

become one with the car, skimming the

road in pure, crazy joy. It may only last until

you get to the grocery store, but the fun of

driving is still there. You knew it all along.

You just needed the inspiration to find it.

There are nearly as many cars on the roads

of America as there are people living here.

I've heard that in Los Angeles, cars actually

outnumber the residents. We go everywhere

and do everything in them. Many of us

practically live in our cars, carrying many of

life's necessities (and a few of life's oddities)

with us.

So, why do we spend so much time in our

cars? What is the difference between driving

to transport ourselves from one place to

another and driving from one mindset to

another? What about the times we arrive

somewhere and forget driving there at all?

And, why are we compelled to live this

"automotive lifestyle?”

What are we carrying in our cars and why?

What unmet or unarticulated needs does

this reveal? Are our expectations of cars

changing? What does the type of car we

drive or the way we drive reveal?

In 2007, my study of women's handbags,

In Your Purse: Archaeology of the American

Handbag, uncovered billions of dollars

in product innovation and marketing

opportunities. In Your Car is a similar

journey of discovery, digging into drivers,

their cars, their needs, and how innovators

can find new ways to engage with, and

market to, drivers and passengers. My

family and I also experienced first-hand

immersion in the automotive lifestyle,

spending a month together in a car

covering most of the U.S. - cities and

small towns, highways and byways -

visiting just a few peculiar automotive

roadside attractions, drive-thrus, classic

roadside motels, car museums, greasy

spoon diners, car junkie establishments,

and we ate as many barbecued ribs as

humanly possible.

So, turn the page, yell out loudly and proudly “I got

shotgun!” and come with us on our road trip through

the American automobile!