Transport Practices in Amish Communities
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Date
2014-04
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Ohio State University. Libraries
Abstract
Car ownership is growing in many countries.While beneficial to individuals in many cases, this
trend has often resulted in significant economic, social, and environmental costs to society more
generally. In researching possible solutions, one approach is to look at particular areas or
communities that exhibit less reliance on the car or are even ‘car free’ to some extent, in order to
see if lessons can be learned. Accordingly, this study seeks to define and characterize transport
practices in Amish communities—in groups located across the United States and Canada—which
for religious reasons have eschewed the car. Specifically, the paper draws on a comprehensive
literature and archival review, supplemented with expert interviews, to briefly outline Amish
beliefs and traditions, and then relate how these influence people’s mobility by mode, journey
purpose, community, and stage of life. The study considers mobility by utilizing twelve broad
mobilities as motivations, along with examples applied across six suggested stages of life. The
twelve motivations considered are: migration; business / profession; discovery; medical related;
military related; post-employment; trailing travel; travel across modes; travel for service work;
tourist travel; visiting friends / relatives; and work / commuting. The six life stages are infancy,
preschool, scholars, young people, adults, and old folks. The impacts of Amish transport are then
considered with respect to society more broadly but also for each of the life stages.
Description
Keywords
Amish, horse and buggy, environmental impacts, mobility, trip purposes, transport motivation
Citation
Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies v. 2, no. 1 (2014), p. 59-78.