ERIC LAURIER
Institute of Geography
University of Edinburgh
HAYDEN LORIMER
Department of Geographical and Earth Sciences
University of Glasgow
BARRY BROWN
University of California San Diego

We are familiar with urban density in terms of a fixed number of people or things in a given area. The car as mobile entity presents us with a novel application of the idea of density. Looking at it one way from the perspective of traffic, usually considered in terms of flow, as congestion grows we nevertheless begin to think about whether there are too many cars on a particular stretch of road and how this came to be so. Looking at density in another way, four or five seater cars are predominantly occupied by only one or two persons. What happens when the car has four or five people travelling in it and how is this “cosy” situation handled by those present.