Aero-automobility: getting there by ground and by air

Automobility and aeromobility have largely been treated as separate systems in work on the social and cultural aspects of transportation and movement. To the extent that scholars have considered the two together, it has generally been in terms of accessing one of multiple airports within large metropolitan areas. However, for travelers from the smaller cities that are spokes in the North American hub-and-spoke network, the long-distance air journey inevitably involves consideration of the automobile. Based on interviews with ‘spoke travelers’ from four small cities around Chicago, this paper demonstrates the hybrid system of aero-automobility as a form of long-distance travel.