In this post, we look at a recent publication by Mike Lloyd, entitled The non-looks of the mobile world: a video-based study of interactional adaptation in cycle-lanes.
Mike Lloyd is
an Senior Lecturer in Cultural Studies with Victoria University (Wellington,
NZ). His research interests include ethnomethodology, sociology of everyday
life, cycling and interaction and more recently video methodologies.
I initially contacted Mike after reading his article about
NZ MTB trail rage – which was an absolute delight.
Since then, this blog has previously hosted two of Mike’s
articles:
Mike is coming to Brisbane in November for the International Cycling Safety Conference. So we are hoping to go for a ride together! Woohoo!
Image: Mike Lloyd (2019)
Article: The non-looks of the mobile world
In this particular article, Mike examines how cyclists and pedestrians in cycle-lane
space adapt their interactions with each other, paying particular attention to
the role of looking and non- looking as it unfolds moment-by-moment.
Any bike rider will be able
to read and totally appreciate the happenings in this article.
It is very interesting exploring how differences between pedestrians ‘doing and being oblivious’ impact cyclists in bike lanes.
I also like the analytical focus of dissecting action and the absence of looking – or non-looks. Original, interesting and pertinent to all cyclists!
Other key concepts from
this article that stand out are: the gaze to shift another pedestrian, direction
of views, standing in bike lanes, people getting out of cars, pedestrians and
mobile phones, ‘observer’s maxim’ moving for public transport and my favourite:
glance, action, apology.
Creatively, Mike uses video still data from a bicycle Go-Pro to explain key theoretical concepts and outcomes.
His writing is well researched, interesting and entertaining.
This article is valuable contribution
to extend discussions of how bicycles and cycle-lane use feature within
mobility, space/infrastructure and situational interactions discourse.
This
empirical study uses video data to examine interactional adaptation between
cyclists and pedestrians in a relatively new cycle-lane. Existing research on
intersections shows order is achieved through the frequent use of a
look-recognition-acknowledgement sequence. Whereas this is found in the
cycle-lane interactions, there is also an important divergent technique which
on the surface seems less cooperative.
Others are
made to cede space based on ‘doing and being oblivious’, in short, forms of
non-looking force others to take evasive action and subtly alter their line of
travel. Here the dynamic nature of this obliviousness is shown through empirical
examples.
Even though it is not always easy to
distinguish between the two forms of non-looking, it is concluded that ‘doing
oblivious’, whilst possibly annoying for others, is most probably harmless, but
there are good reasons to be more concerned about ‘being oblivious’, for it may
lead to collisions between pedestrians and cyclists.
Aspects of
non-looking provide an important addition to knowledge of the mobile world,
suggesting we renew attention to specific sites where people concert their
movements in minutely detailed ways.
Here is the fourth and last in the US bicycle politics review essay series written by Dr Jennifer Bonham. This review detailed three key texts. The first post outlined the socio-political context to set the scene. The second post reviewed the book ‘Pedal Power: The quiet rise of the bicycle in American public life’ while the last post focused on Zack Furness’ ‘One Less Car: Bicycling and the Politics of Automobility’. This post looks at Jeff Mapes’ Pedaling Revolution: How Cyclists are Changing American Cities’ which rounds off a very comprehensive and informed discussion about the history and activities of bicycle politics in the USA. This book in an especially valuable inclusion to this discussion given that according to Dr Bonham ‘it comes the closest to conjuring a culture of cycling which values diverse mobilities’ of all the books reviewed. A massive thank you to Dr Bonham for sharing her research, thoughts and passion. Enjoy! NG.
Mapes, J. (2009). Pedaling revolution: How cyclists are changing American cities. Corvallis, OR: Oregon State University Press.
More Space
Jeff Mapes’ Pedaling
Revolution: How Cyclists are Changing American Cities targets a general
readership as he traces changes in the status and popularity of cycling in the
United States. A senior political reporter with The Oregonian, Mapes’
sympathy for bicycling is informed by debates over the livability of American
cities, health and the built environment, and the costs of suburbanization and
automobile-oriented transport systems. Mapes does not explicitly challenge
fundamental notions of technological progress or dominant values of
individualism and materialism. Rather, he argues, automobile-oriented transport
systems bring a range of problems—suburban sprawl, affordability, exclusion and
constraint— that will worsen into the future. His analysis is concerned with
the formal political institutions—parliament, elected and appointed officials
in all spheres of government, legislation, funding arrangements—he believes are
essential to increasing bicycle use.
Mapes introduces his
book with a description of the different people to be observed riding bicycles
in North American cities today. As he challenges cycling stereotypes, he is
also quite aware this latest turn to bicycling may be short lived, just one
more crest in a series of highs and lows that reach from the nineteenth to the
twenty-first centuries. The bright moments for “everyday” cycling in the United
States have occurred under “not so everyday” conditions. The 1940s boom came
with wartime petrol rationing and the 1970s boom amid the fuel shortages of the
oil crisis. But Mapes traces threads from the 1970s to the present day as he identifies
the people (bike advocates, bureaucrats, industry representatives,
politicians), maps the legislation (ISTEA), and describes the ideas and
programs (e.g. Safe Routes to School) he believes have enabled a recent
resurgence in cycling.
Once he has
positioned the United States on the brink of change, Mapes turns his attention
to the Netherlands for a glimpse of what the future might hold. He provides a
detailed description of the infrastructure, road rules, etiquette, legislation,
and funding arrangements in place in the Netherlands. Mapes emphasizes the
importance of the Dutch government’s political will in re-orienting the
transport system to accommodate all modes of transport (not just the
automobile) and, in contrast to Wray, he explains this re-orientation largely
in terms of the 1970s oil crisis.
Mapes, like Wray,
discusses the various roles played by bike advocates, advocacy groups, activist
events and sympathetic politicians in developing a culture of cycling in U.S.
cities. The discussion is rich with examples as he takes readers on a cycling
tour of three U.S. cities: the university town of Davis, California; Portland,
Oregon; and New York. Combining tour with commentary, Mapes describes the
streets he cycles along and uses buildings, landmarks, and pieces of
infrastructure as entry points into the network of people, organizations,
events and opportunities he argues have been instrumental in the development of
local cycling cultures. The “bicycle tour” through these cities is particularly
useful as it situates cycling within the broader context of debates about
public space, sub/urbanization, urban planning and transport. In doing this,
Mapes draws back from the car versus bike dichotomy bringing into view myriad
elements, actions and relations that make up the urban landscape and shape
mobility practices today.
Mapes’ cycling
advocacy is keen but measured. In the final chapters, he focuses on the three
issues he clearly considers to be at the heart of livable cities: cyclist
safety, health, and children’s independent mobility. He presents a useful
summary of the contrasting views of “cyclist safety” from prominent U.S.
cycling activists—including John Forester’s “vehicular cycling,” Randy
Neufield’s traffic calming approach and Anne Lusk’s segregated bikeways—and
discusses their implications for transport infrastructure, public space and the
conduct of the journey by bike.
These debates
currently reverberate in developed and developing countries across the globe.
As Mapes places the bicycle within a broader sub/urban context, he presents
research into the health benefits of cycling alongside discussions between
geographers, planners, transport, and health researchers on the role of the
built environment in facilitating— or not—active modes of travel. Finally,
Mapes examines the decline of cycling in children’s everyday mobility in the
United States and discusses the competing concerns over sedentary lifestyles,
children‘s independent mobility and parental responsibilities.
Pedaling Revolution is not explicit in its theoretical underpinnings nor does it problematize the power relations through which bicycles/bicycling/ bicyclists have been marginalized in contemporary American culture. Further, Mapes’ discussion of bicycle culture tends to be overshadowed by the role he attributes to politicians and bureaucrats in bringing about change. But what is crucially important about Pedaling Revolutionis that it places cycling within a broader spatial and mobility context than either Wray or Furness allow. In doing this, Mapes comes closest to conjuring a culture of cycling which values diverse mobilities.
Image: Mona Caron
Centering Cycling?
Each of these
books advocates for cycling as they explore its position in the United States
and reflect on bringing about change. They are important in their efforts to
persuade a broader audience—beyond the committed cyclist—of the benefits of
public investment in cycling; demonstrating alternative (more or less radical)
ways of being in the world; providing insights into how cycling advocates and
sympathizers have intervened in decision-making processes; the rich and
detailed examples of the individuals, groups, places, and processes that have
been pivotal in fostering change—and the pitfalls to be overcome.
However, their efforts to centre cycling within their respective analyses meet with mixed success. As Wray and Furness introduce cycling through a dichotomous relation with the automobile, the bicycle is immediately “de-centered” and, despite demonstrating alternative futures the struggle for change remains daunting. Their political strategy is to “grow” cycling cultures outward into the broader population so that an increasing number of people come into the “fold” of cycling. Arguably, Mapes retains cycling at the centre of the analysis through reference to broader spatial and mobility contexts. In doing this, his strategy is to foster general conditions which value cycling—a culture which welcomes bicycling without demanding mass participation or positioning cyclists as victims needing concessions or protests.
Image: Pedal Revolution.org
Dr Jennifer Bonham is a senior lecturer in the School of Social Sciences, University of Adelaide. She has a background in human geography specializing in urbanization and cultural practices of travel. Her research focuses on devalued mobilities as it explores the complex relationship between bodies, spaces, practices, and meanings of travel. Her current research explores the gendering of cycling. Jennifer’s work is informed by a concern for equitable and ecologically sustainable cities.
Contact details: School of Social Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide 5005, Australia. jennifer.bonham@adelaide.edu.au
This excerpt is from: Bonham, J. (2011). Bicycle politics: Review essay. Transfers, 1(1), 137. doi:10.3167/trans.2011.010110.
Images and hyperlinks included here are not part of the original publication.
Welcome back to this third post in a series of four taken from Dr Jennifer Bonham’s Bicycle Politics Review Essay IDEAS IN MOTION: ON THE BIKE. In the first post, Dr Bonham provided the background and context for the three bicycle politics books she reviews. The second post reviewed the book ‘Pedal Power: The quiet rise of the bicycle in American public life’. In this post, she reviews Zack Furness’s ‘One Less Car: Bicycling and the Politics of Automobility’. This book is a personal favourite of mine. I have a copy on my desk and I love that this book is a reiteration of Furness’s PhD Dissertation. It was also the first time I saw the term BIKETIVISM. Books like this one keep me motivated in my own community bicycle PhD research. If you get a chance, read this book. It is comprehensive, thought-provoking, full of interesting bike facts and is incredibly well-researched. A must read for any cyclist! Thanks again to Dr Bonham. Enjoy! NG.
Furness, Z. (2010). One less car: Bicycling and the politics of automobility. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
Less Cars
Zack Furness is an assistant professor in cultural studies at Columbia College, Chicago. His book One Less Car: Bicycling and the Politics of Automobility is a revised version of his Ph.D. dissertation and it is impressive in its scope and detail. Furness carves out a place for cycling both in the formation of automobility, which he locates in the late nineteenth century, and as a point of resistance to it. The bicycle, he argues, played a central role in a series of cultural transformations in “mobility, technology, and space” (16). These transformations included the construction of a “mobile subjectivity,” the development of a meaning system around personal transportation and the disciplining of bodies and environment to long-distance, independent mobility (17).
These transformations, according to Furness, were key components in the new “system of automobility.”9 Following from this, the automobile did not initiate cultural transformations; rather, the automobile itself “made sense” because these transformations had already taken place. Furness acknowledges cycling was not alone in bringing about some of these changes but he regards it as a proto-type of automoblity so that “automobiles provided an almost logical solution to the culture of mobility forged by cyclists and the bicycle industry” (45).
Having argued that cycling played a key role in the formation of automobility, the substantive chapters of One Less Car operate as point and counterpoint to the automobile norm. In Chapter Three, Furness discusses the early twentieth century growth in automobile ownership, legislative changes regarding conduct on the streets, and the modification of public space to facilitate motor vehicle movement. These changes are explained in terms of the automobile-industrial complex, which facilitated production and consumption on a massive scale. The discussion then turns to cycling as a point of resistance to this complex. Furness locates the emergence of U.S. cycle activism in the 1960s/1970s and places cycling organizations, advocacy groups and activism at the centre of challenges to the automobile that run through to the present day. Like Wray, he explores the role of different political actors and actions in creating alternative mobility cultures, illustrating the case with a detailed and multi-layered account of Critical Mass.10
Moving to contemporary society, Furness is particularly concerned with the mechanisms by which cycling is devalued in relation to the automobile and focuses on specific cultural products—film, television shows, road- safety pedagogy and news reporting—for the way they have created and maintained automobile norms. Bike riding characters in films such as Pee- wee’s Big Adventure and television shows like Get a Life infantilize and emasculate cyclists while road-safety “documentaries” effectively prepare child-bicyclists to become adult-motorists. In terms of news reporting, he argues, cycling has been represented favorably in times of crisis—the war effort and petrol rationing—but more recently power relations have been turned on their head as motorists are positioned as victims of the inept or elitist behavior of cyclists.
Image: Contra Texts
As a counterpoint to these negative representations, the remaining chapters offer thick descriptions of cycling sub-cultures in the U.S. These chapters are the real strength of One Less Car, offering insights into an aspect of U.S. cycling that, until recently, has been overlooked. They examine the linkages within specific sub-cultural groups between bicycling, environmentalism, community development and anti-consumption. These include the “Do it Yourself/Do It Ourselves” ethos of the punk musicians who have embraced bicycling, bike messengers and mutant bike clubs.
Furness also explores the important role of community bike projects within disadvantaged localities as they provide places for people to gather and access resources and knowledge that is usually unavailable. He examines the role that specific projects have played in supplying bikes to people within their own local communities and, with a more critical eye, the place of such projects in developing countries as they assist in creating alternative global networks.
Furness also examines the more problematic aspects of cycling sub-culture—the pervasive sexism of cycling in the U.S. and the assumptions that underpin bicycle projects in developing countries. Furness finishes the book with a brief review of the shift of bike manufacturing out of the U.S. to low-wage countries and contemplates the potential of the industry to once again provide employment in the U.S.
Furness attempts to place the bicycle at the centre of the analysis but, like Wray, he re-inscribes the bicycle/automobile dichotomy and despite paying careful attention to one set of cultural transformations he ignores others. Furness does not draw attention to the micro-political processes through which decisions about the material formation of cars and bikes have been (and continue to be) made. Nor does he relate the bicycle or the automobile to broader discussions in the late nineteenth century about the spatialization of activities and the development of cities, which included the urban industrial economy; urban efficiency, sub/urbanization and public health. Although Furness examines contestation within the various cultural transformations he describes, there is an air of finality in these transformations that offers little hope of change.
Finally, as Furness identifies bicycle activism as the key point of resistance to the automobile in the anti-freeway protests of the 1960s/1970s, he overlooks the efforts of local communities, built environment professionals, politicians, and academics in questioning freeway planning.
Image: behance.net
Notes
10. Critical Mass is a regularly staged bike ride in cities around the world that brings cyclists together in a blend of political statement and celebration of cyclists.
Dr Jennifer Bonham is a senior lecturer in the School of Social Sciences, University of Adelaide. She has a background in human geography specializing in urbanization and cultural practices of travel. Her research focuses on devalued mobilities as it explores the complex relationship between bodies, spaces, practices, and meanings of travel. Her current research explores the gendering of cycling. Jennifer’s work is informed by a concern for equitable and ecologically sustainable cities.
Contact details: School of Social Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide 5005, Australia. jennifer.bonham@adelaide.edu.au
This excerpt is from: Bonham, J. (2011). Bicycle politics: Review Essay. Transfers, 1(1), 137. doi:10.3167/trans.2011.010110.
Images and hyperlinks included here are not part of the original publication.
Welcome back to this second post in a series of four taken from Dr Jennifer Bonham’s Bicycle Politics Review Essay IDEAS IN MOTION: ON THE BIKE. In the last post, Dr Bonham (Uni of Adelaide) provided an introduction and background for this essay and established the histo-politico-social context. This post reviews the first (of three) American books on Bicycle Politics. Thanks again to Dr Bonham. If you have not yet read this book, check out this review and see if you want to head to your local library for more. Enjoy! NG.
Wray, J. H. (2008). Pedal power: The quiet rise of the bicycle in American public life. Boulder, CA: Paradigm Publishers.
Pedal Power
J. Harry
Wray’s Pedal Power: The Quiet Rise of the Bicycle in American Public Life is
an immensely readable account of the nascent shift toward bike friendliness in
the United States. Wray has written both a cycling advocacy text and, as a
professor of politics at De Paul University in Chicago, an accessible
introductory text for students taking courses in culture and politics. Each
chapter offers an entry point into discussions about the nature of politics,
political theory, the mechanisms that foster particular meanings and values
over others, and the processes of political struggle and change.
The early chapters of Pedal Power establish the background for the pivotal third chapter after which the discussion turns to the development of a bicycle culture and the process of creating political change. Wray opens his case with a “bicycle view” strategy—that of the touring cyclist— to contrast the embodied experiences and social interactions enabled through cycling and car driving. He uses a familiar set of concepts in making this comparison: the surface of the road reverberating through the body; muscles responding to topography; elements assailing the flesh.
Further, the fact of sitting “on” a bike and “in” a car facilitates different types of relations with co-travelers (those who walk, ride, drive (passenger) alongside), “by-standers” (those not going anywhere—for the moment), and other species and things. Wray links these different experiences of mobility to different political positions arguing the bicyclist tends to a more progressive (and preferable) politics as the cyclist is always located within his/her context whereas driving tends to isolate and insulate motorists from their environment.
Clearly,
the bicycle and the motorcar will enable different experiences and interactions
but Wray misses a number of opportunities by simplifying the argument into a
bicycle versus car dichotomy. It works toward fixing differences between cars
and bikes and smoothes over the processes through which bodies, machines,
materials, spaces, and concepts have been, and continue to be, wrought
together. Further, it limits our view of other ways of getting around and the
diversity of experiences and interactions these enable. To illustrate this
point, we could assemble cycling (racing, utility, etc.), walking (jogging,
running), taking the tram, bus or train, riding a scooter, wheelchair or sled,
skateboarding, being a passenger in a car, driving a truck, taxi or automobile,
rickshaw cycling, parcour and rollerblading. We could then question the
apparatuses through which these particular categories have been created, or
excised, from the mass of human experience and bracketed into discrete sets of
mobility. Picking apart these categories (the practices, emotions, concepts,
materials and interactions they entail) is a political tactic through which we
would scramble our existing categories, create new ones and challenge the
valuing or prioritization of any one set of practices over another. The point
Wray makes in contrasting bicycling and driving is to challenge the privilege
accorded to motoring practices. However, he also re-inscribes the car/bike
hierarchy as he seeks to value the very characteristics through which cycling
has been devalued.
The
second and third chapters contrast the politics and culture of bike riding in
the Netherlands and the United States. Wray explains bicycle culture in the
Netherlands in terms of a sense of shared responsibility and a political
pragmatism that was brought to bear on the 1960s/1970s backlash against the
motor vehicle. This explanation prepares the ground for a discussion of cycling
and motoring in relation to the core American values of individualism and
materialism. He is specifically concerned with whether and how cycling and
motoring foster and extend each of these values. The “myth” of individualism,
and its strong links to materialism, are explained as the outcome of the
country’s Protestant roots, (initial) fluid class system and the stories
Americans tell about their long frontier history. This individualism was transformed
through the process of industrialization where it was reconstituted as
“personal product choices” (61).
It is
within this context that the motor vehicle figures as a symbol and mechanism
for the further elaboration of consumption and individualism. The motorcar
represents the U.S.’s extreme form of individualism— isolation and separation.
Writing in the lead-up to the 2008 election campaign, Wray argues that growing
disillusionment and discontent in the United States provides fertile ground for
alternative cultural norms. The bicycle is a symbol of that alternative.
Importantly, Wray links the bicycle to both a “tamer” form of individualism and
community cohesion. Rather than the bicycle being a “private” means of
transport, Wray emphasizes the particular social interactions it enables
thereby making a powerful challenge to the traditional public/private transport
dichotomy.
The
second half of Pedal Power is devoted to challenging current cultural
norms, the mechanisms by which participation in everyday cycling is being
encouraged and the role of different players working inside and outside formal
political processes to revalue the bicycle. Wray devotes a chapter each to the
role of: individual cyclists and advocates who provide alternative ways of
seeing and being in the world; bike advocacy groups which reinforce each other
as they lobby for funding and legislative changes from the national through to
the local scale; bicycle activism that engages the wider citizenry in bicycle
politics by encouraging participation in myriad bike-related activities; and
sympathetic politicians who can influence legislation and funding decisions to
further the interests of cycling. These chapters are alive with detail as Wray
offers numerous examples of the people, groups, activities, and legislative
changes he believes are facilitating a culture of bicycle use and political
change.
Image: Mary Kate McDevitt
Dr Jennifer Bonham is a senior lecturer in the School of Social
Sciences, University of Adelaide. She has a background in human geography
specializing in urbanization and cultural practices of travel. Her research
focuses on devalued mobilities as it explores the complex relationship between
bodies, spaces, practices, and meanings of travel. Her current research
explores the gendering of cycling. Jennifer’s work is informed by a concern for
equitable and ecologically sustainable cities.
Contact details: School of
Social Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide 5005, Australia.
jennifer.bonham@adelaide.edu.au
This excerpt is from: Bonham, J. (2011). Bicycle
politics: Review essay. Transfers, 1(1), 137.
doi:10.3167/trans.2011.010110.
Images included here are not part of the original
publication.
Work on my community bicycle PhD research project requires me to read a lot of academic literature on bikes. Whilst it is my immense pleasure, there is always more to read. Recently, I came across a review essay by Dr Jennifer Bonham (University of Adelaide) that summarised and appraised three key (and popular) American ‘bicycle politics’ books. This essay a very interesting read as it identifies critical histo-politico-social aspects of bicycling from each of the books in an accessible, succinct and thoughtful way. Woohoo! What a gift! So here is Dr Bonham’s full essay IDEAS IN MOTION: ON THE BIKE as a series of four blog posts. This first post covers the intro and background, followed by three more – one post each reviewing, in turn, the three bicycle books below. A massive thank you to Jennifer for her analytical synthesis explaining why riding a bike is a political act. Enjoy! NG.
Wray, J. H. (2008). Pedal power: The quiet rise of the bicycle in American public life. Boulder, CA: Paradigm Publishers.
Furness, Z. (2010). One less car: Bicycling and the politics of automobility. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
Mapes, J. (2009). Pedalingrevolution: How cyclists are changing American cities. Corvallis, OR: Oregon State University Press.
Since the mid-1990s,
bicycling has been identified as a solution to problems ranging from climate
change and peak oil to urban livability, congestion and public health. A
plethora of guidelines, strategies, policy statements, plans and behavior
change programs have been produced— especially in industrialized countries—in
an effort to encourage cycling. Despite many localities registering increases
in cycling over the past decade, English-speaking countries such as Australia,
Canada, the United Kingdom and United States continue to have extremely low
national rates of cycling. The benefits of cycling are widely accepted and
barriers well documented but changes are slow, uneven, and often contested. The
disjuncture between government rhetoric and commitment to bicycling (via
legislation, funding, infrastructure) foregrounds the broader cultural and
political context within which cycling is located.
Implementing pro-cycling1 policies is difficult in cultural contexts where bicycles/bicyclists are set in a hierarchical relation with automobiles/ motorists and the latter valued over the former. It is equally difficult to effect cultural change when decision makers fail to prioritize cycling on the political agenda. A key research problem has been to understand how the hierarchical relation between different travel practices has been established and reproduced. Often, this problem is approached by centering the automobile in the analysis:2 a tactic which positions the motor vehicle in a series of dichotomous relations with “other” travel practices—private/public, motorized/non-motorized, choice/captive.
Such dichotomous
approaches have been widely criticized for re-creating rather than undermining
established hierarchies.3
An alternative tactic
involves unpicking the mechanisms through which these categories are produced
and bodies are differentially valued. Recently the bike has been placed at the
centre of the analysis in an effort to unsettle its persistent marginalization.
However, this type of analysis will be limited if it simply reproduces the
bicycle/automobile dichotomy.
Throughout the late
twentieth century, “cyclists” and everyday practices of cycling have been
constituted through concepts and research practices within the field of
transport and positioned as problematic—in terms of safety, efficiency,
orderliness. But the past 15 years4 have
seen researchers from a range of disciplines—health, political science,
geography, sociology, urban planning and transport—creating new “versions” of
cycling.5
As they centre
bicycling in their work and offer recommendations on “what is lacking” and
“what should change” they also provide insights into the mechanisms by which
cyclists have been explicitly excluded from or marginalized within public
space, academic study and public policy. This literature is a fundamental part
of political and cultural change not so much for the veracity of its claims but
in re-constituting cycling as an object of study and opening the path to
alternative ways of thinking about and practicing mobility.
From the early 2000s,
there has been a steady growth in research into practices of cycling and
cycling sub-cultures.6
Arguably, this
ethnographically oriented work can be traced to Michel de Certeau’s seminal
essay Walking in the City,7 which made apparent the historical and
cultural specificity of contemporary travel practices. There has been a steady
growth in research into particular travel/mobility practices and sub-cultural
groups who identify through their mobility.8 The study of local cycling groups and
cycling sub-cultures challenges hegemonic meanings, which devalue bicycling,
and offers alternative mobility futures. They can also link bike riders to more
mainstream values and beliefs thereby questioning their marginal status. The
very practice of riding a bike and/ or being part of a cycling sub-culture is
implicitly political as it challenges dominant forms of mobility. However, some
individuals and sub-cultural groups are explicitly political as they use the
subject position of cyclist as a means by which to resist exclusion and
advocate for bike riding.
The books reviewed in this paper examine the bicycle culture-politics nexus in the context of the United States. They provide explanations for the marginalization of cycling but more particularly they are concerned with how to bring about change. Each author addresses culture and politics to different degrees, recognizing them as inextricably linked but emphasizing one or the other in their analyses. They draw upon research from health and environmental sciences, architecture, urban, and transport planning to support their arguments rather than reflecting on this knowledge as a fundamental part of contemporary culture or cultural change. Culture is discussed in terms of the sites through which meanings are attached to cycling—especially film and television, literature, advertising, and news reporting—and how these are being challenged through the bicycle cultures and everyday mobility practices that form part of a growing social movement in cycling.
Image: Bikeyface.com
Notes
Pedestrians, public transport users, scooter riders, roller bladers and so forth could be included along with cycling.
For example, James Flink, The Car Culture (Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1975); Peter Freund and George Martin, The Ecology of the Automobile (Montreal: Black Rose Books Ltd 1993); Mimi Sheller and John Urry, “The City and the Car,” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 24 no. 4 (2000): 737–757.
Feminists from Butler to Hekman have been at the forefront of this critique. Judith Butler, Gender Trouble (New York: Routledge, 1990); Susan Hekman, The Material of Knowledge: Feminist Disclosures (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2010).
This timeline reflects research into everyday cycling in English-speaking countries.
Borrowing Annemarie Mol’s theorization of different versions of reality, I want to suggest we do not have a single object (the cyclist) which is studied through a different lens by each discipline; rather we create the cyclist in different ways through the methodologies we use within each discipline. Annemarie Mol, The Body Multiple: Ontology in Medical Practice (Durham: Duke University Press, 2002).
The Ethnographies of Cycling workshop held at Lancaster University in 2009 included presentations from a number of researchers working in this area since the early 2000s. http://www.lancs.ac.uk/fass/centres/cemore/event/2982/
Michel de Certeau, The Practice of Everyday Life (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984).
Dr Jennifer Bonham is a senior lecturer in the School of Social Sciences, University of Adelaide. She has a background in human geography specializing in urbanization and cultural practices of travel. Her research focuses on devalued mobilities as it explores the complex relationship between bodies, spaces, practices, and meanings of travel. Her current research explores the gendering of cycling. Jennifer’s work is informed by a concern for equitable and ecologically sustainable cities.
Contact details: School of Social Sciences, University of Adelaide,
Adelaide 5005, Australia. jennifer.bonham@adelaide.edu.au
This excerpt is from: Bonham, J. (2011). Bicycle politics: Review essay. Transfers, 1(1), 137. doi:10.3167/trans.2011.010110.
Images included here are not part of the original publication.
While researching how bicycles are used in communities in the Middle East, I came across this story from Israel about Meir Farkash. Farkash has been using his own bicycle as a volunteer bicycle emergency (EMS) responder in Ramat Hasharon (a coastal city located south of Tel Aviv).
I love this story because it showcases how positive one person on a bike can be in a community. I love that Meir is a student, a volunteer, that he has been so incredibly effective at saving lives as a bicycle emergency first-responder, and that now he is somewhat of a community icon as he makes his way around town. What a wonderful example of how cyclists can make significant positive community change. This story was first published in Israel Rescue. Enjoy, NG.
Image: Israel Rescue
Ramat Hasharon Hesder Yeshiva Student, Meir Farkash (25), is known to be the pinnacle lifesaver of his city. Over the past four years in which Farkash has been a United Hatzalah volunteer EMT, Farkash has responded to more than 2,500 emergency calls.
Among his myriad of emergency calls, more than 300 have been life-threatening. What’s even more impressive is that Farkash has responded to all of these calls on his personal bicycle.
In honor of his continued dedication to saving lives, United Hatzalah has given the active volunteer a first response e-bicycle that was donated to the organization for him by the residents of the city to honor Farkash’s selfless work.
Over the past four years, Meir Farkash has become somewhat of a local celebrity in Ramat Hasharon. The image of him pedaling through the streets in order to rush to a scene and save someone’s life is residents of that many residents have come to know and support.
“Today there are lots of people who say hello to me as I pass them on response e-bicycle. I say hello back. I have come to know many residents, and residents of me, through the EMS activities that I undertake and the calls that I respond to,” said Farkash.
The day before Farkash received the bicycle, he saved the life of one of the city’s citizens. He was dispatched to the car of a known lawyer from the city who had lost consciousness while he was with his family. Farkash, who arrived in just moments with his bicycle, began CPR and help resuscitate the man with the Intensive Care ambulance team that arrived at the scene. Farkash joined the ambulance team in transporting the patient to the hospital, and the man was released a few days later, alive and well enough to go home.
When asked if he knew the total number of lives he has saved, Farkash said:
I have never really thought about it. Now that you mention it, it gives me a really good feeling. Truth be told, even calls that are more general and do not involve a life being saved per se, they too give me and other volunteers a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction knowing that we helped somebody who needed us.
In every case we respond to, you meet a person who is incapable of helping themselves at that moment. You help them, you comfort them and you make sure they receive the best care that they can. That is the job of being a first responder. It’s not about the glory, it’s about helping people.”
When asked if he knew the total number of lives he has saved, Farkash said that: “I have never really thought about it. Now that you mention it, it gives me a really good feeling. Truth be told, even calls that are more general and do not involve a life being saved per se, they too give me and other volunteers a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction knowing that we helped somebody who needed us.
In every case we respond to, you meet a person who is incapable of helping themselves at that moment. You help them, you comfort them and you make sure they receive the best care that they can. That is the job of being a first responder.”
It’s not about the glory, it’s about helping people. Meir Farkash.
Today I read Paulus Maringka’s Greencycle Masters Thesis.
Paulus undertook this research with Auckland University of Technology in 2010. I found this manuscript online and was initially drawn to read it as this bicycle-inspired community development project had a number of cross-over themes with my own current PhD research project.
This thesis was a pleasure to
read. It was clearly written, on-topic and full of interesting images to help
break up blocks of text.
It was great to see a new approach to many of the issues I can currently researching, like bicycle use in developing countries, local adaptations and resources, impacts of cultural needs and contexts, and how users personalise their bicycles.
Equally, reading the chapters on
the technical design and development phases was also interesting as this project
centres on a product creation and intervention, whereas mine does not.
Below is Maringka’s thesis’ abstract, thesis organisation and some of the key images from the thesis, which gives a solid overview of the project without having to read it in its entirety.
This Greencycle project applies a
system approach to shift design thinking and practices away from the ongoing
unsustainable use of resources towards a more sustainable framework of
consumption whereby local cultures, skills, resources and technology are
analyzed to inform the design and development of a human powered transportation
system.
It uses a trans-disciplinary
research and design approach by consulting all stakeholders; including farmers
in a Third World country, industrial designers, engineers and manufacturers to
provide information, understanding and insights as a basis to find solutions
that have enabled this research study to produce a system called Greencycle
which utilizes renewable materials and indigenous people skills to produce a
bicycle that is more sustainable.
The bicycle provides more than
basic transportation to go from A to B. Poor countries need and depend on this
mode of transportation for a wide range of uses; thus expanding its function
and uses would be of great benefit to its users.
This research study has created a
series of accessories to extend a bicycle’s functionality, with the core being
made from sustainable materials and local skills. For this project it would
have been a simple process for the designer to come up with a concept idea(s)
that was based on a personal view of what would be a suitable solution for the
target user.
Instead however, the designer has
used feedback from the target group participants to shape and develop the
design process and to ensure the design will be acceptable for the target user
to use and manufacture.
This research study has included four expert interviews, eleven case studies of target users, prototype testing and field experiments with sustainable resources to gather information, understanding and insights from these stakeholders in order to propose, design and evaluate two Greencycles (using sustainable bamboo material) and a series of design accessories.
This multi-discipline approach to the design problem has revealed many opportunities that would otherwise be hidden by less detailed research and design methodology. Many academic studies stop at the point when the written thesis is complete.
This research study has included four expert interviews, eleven case studies of target users, prototype testing and field experiments with sustainable resources to gather information, understanding and insights from these stakeholders in order to propose, design and evaluate two Greencycles (using sustainable bamboo material) and a series of design accessories. This multi-discipline approach to the design problem has revealed many opportunities that would otherwise be hidden by less detailed research and design methodology. Many academic studies stop at the point when the written thesis is complete.
This research project went a step
further by testing and implementing its findings on users back in its intended
marketplace to ensure the design will be adopted by and be successful for
people in Third World countries.
As a result of this research,
there is now an opportunity to look at and create a business model that
provides new income opportunities for the local people.
Feedback for the Greencycle design and its accessories has so far been very encouraging, with participants showing a significant level of enthusiasm. To take advantage of this success, a business proposition to market these sustainable products seems plausible as a first step to developing this business venture. Information posters to showcase the accessories and their functions and applications have been designed to test market demands and other important indicators for future business development and strategy.
Thesis Organisation
Chapter 1: Introduction
Introduces and scopes the areas of research and need for functional, usable and sustainable human powered machines.
Chapter 2: Literature Review
Provides critical analysis through literature review and
internet ethnography to gain an understanding and knowledge of bicycle
functionality and bicycle users in Third World countries. This chapter also
reviews literature and provides a study background on Bicycle Ergonomics, Green
Materials and Sustainability.
Chapter 3: Research Design &
Research Methods
Outlines the research design and design methods approach
to the design generation and development of the Greencycle and accessories.
Chapter 4: Significant Findings
Presents the significant findings and the major
discoveries that formed the design criteria of the Greencycle and accessories.
Chapter 5: Design &
Development Phases
Details the design phases and iterative processes in the
development phases of the Greencycle and the accessories.
Chapter 6: Evaluation
Details the evaluation outcomes of an integrated approach
for the concept design thinking of the Greencycle and accessories, including
materials and manufacturing processes.
Chapter 6: Discussion &
Conclusion
The Discussion and Conclusion provides a reflection on what has been achieved and the future of the Greencycle and the accessories.
Abstract, chapter organization & images: Paulus Maringka (2010)Greencycle .
This event is a national program that encourages workers to feel good and have fun commuting to work by bike.
The aim of Ride2Work is to promote the health, financial and environmental benefits of riding and encourage more people to ride to work. Ride2Work Day helps people who have never commuted by bike before to give it a go and allows regular riders to stay motivated and encourage their work-mates to get involved.
To be involved, participants register their ride on Ride2Work Day website. Registering is a way peak bicycle advocacy groups can better understand bike commuter behaviour and help leverage campaigns for better riding facilities to councils, local and state governments.
Most capital cities hold a Ride2Work Day breakfast event. I went to last year breakfast in Brisbane and this year we had a Griffith Uni crew meeting there.
It has been raining for a week in Brisbane, but when I woke up early. It was a beautiful crisp morning, and I was looking forward to meeting the other 8 Griffith Uni cyclists in at the Brisbane Law Courts Plaza, 7.00 – 8.15am for a free cyclist’s breakfast, coffee, chat with some fellow riders and to see what the stalls and tents had to offer.
I was excited!
I took Leki and we arrived in the city early.
So I took a little sojourn along the Brisbane River. Then I started heading in the direction of the Law Courts and ended up joining up along the way with another rider named Peter. We chatted as we rode along, marvelling at the beautiful morning and how lucky we were that the rain broke for this event.
But when we arrived at the event site, this is what we saw…..
After a quick chat with a few other cyclists and some phone calls, we found out the event had been cancelled due to rain – obviously!
Funny, none of us knew the event had been cancelled or had received any notification.
I checked the Bicycle Queensland website and Instagram before I left and there was no notification – hence heading out. A friend said later there was a short post on Bicycle Queensland’s Facebook page – not so helpful for those who don’t use Facebook – perhaps an email for those who had registered?
And nothing from the other Griffith cyclists either – interesting…!
No matter!
It was such a beautiful morning. I was certainly not going to waste this opportunity! So with Peter’s directions, I headed out towards West End on an adventurous morning ride.
Unsurprisingly, I had a great time!
Source: @wobert.mcglinn
I went scouting for a cool cafe to stop at before the morning traffic got too much, but ended up having such a lovely ride along the river, I just keep going!
I chatted to a few other cyclists and really enjoyed watching the city wake up.
I went to parts of the city I have not seen before and rode the long way back along the Brisbane River using a bike path I’ve never been on. GOLD!
It was awesome.
Tired, sweaty and happy – I then started to head back.
So despite the Brisbane event being cancelled- I had a brilliant ride to work.
Nina Ginsberg and Dale Bracewell (Manager of Transportation Planning. City of Vancouver, Canada).
Recently I attended a very interesting event hosted by BikePedTrans. It was a presentation by Dale Bracewell, Manager of Transportation Planning for the City of Vancouver.
Vancouver has a particular sustainable and social interaction angle for its urban improvements that has created incredible positive change towards biking and active transportation – to a point where Vancouver is an exemplary urban cycling role model almost without rival.
As a bike enthusiast, this is very exciting! I wanted to hear more!
So here’s a quick overview of Dale’s session. It was called ‘FromaTrickletoaStream: Achieving a Major Bike Mode Shift in Canada’.
Ambitious Plans: Achieving a Major Bike Mode Shift in Vancouver
In 1997, Vancouver’s Transportation Plan identified there would be no increase in road capacity for cars and that walking, cycling and transit would be prioritised.
It also set an active travel mode share target of 40% to be achieved by 2008.
Significant progress has since been achieved and the plan was updated in 2012 that increased the targets even more – to 66% of all travel to be via walking bike or PT transit by 2040.
Remarkably, Vancouver achieved these goals well ahead of time – whereby 50% of travel set for 2020 was actually achieved by 2015.
Implementation of an impressive protected bike lane network and an Active Transportation Promotion & Enabling Plan saw daily cycling trips in Vancouver increase to over 50% from 2013 to 2016.
Vancouver’s vision is to support happy and health living by inspiring and enabling people of all ages and abilities to walk or cycle as their prefered way of getting around Vancouver.
Vancouver’s mission is to be leaders and partners in creating and promoting a world-class Active Transporation network in Vancouver.
Vancouver is looking beyond transport and mobility as the foundation for their Active Transportation policy. Their focus addresses and prioritises other eco-socio-cultural dimensions of urban living, to include health, safety, accessibility, economy, public life, environment and resiliency.
Vancouver has 5 Key Cycling Directions:
Upgrade and expand the bike network with routes that are comfortable and convenient
Improve integration with other modes, including via public bike share
Provide secure and abundant paring and end-of-trip facilities
Focus on education and safety
Promote cycling as an everyday option
The implementation principles for Vancouver’s Active Transportation Promotion & Enabling Plan are:
Think Big Picture
Be Opportunistic
Work Together
Invest Wisely
Innovate
Learn and Adapt
Data and Monitoring is key to everything!
Monitoring is key to tracking changes, recording data and observing trends. It is also imperative as evidence to prove positive changes and to encourage (stubborn?) politicians and administrators to act on increasing active transportation.
Vancouver’s monitoring program is impressive. Dale said a number of times that ‘you need to love the data!’. For example, evidence on the time spent sitting and being sedentary can be used to demonstrate causal impacts on health and physical activity outcomes. Dale also stressed the importance of female participation rates as an indicator of achievement of all ages design. Collect data and use it as evidence of success and to justify future initiatives.
What were some of the most interesting ideas?
Dale’s presentation was filled with interesting facts, ideas, learnings, suggestions and insights about Vancouver’s 2040 Transport Plan for biking. There was so much that was interesting, more than I can share here (contact Dale for more!). A quick review of some of the most interesting ideas include:
All ages and all abilities design – the end goal is for all Vancouver cycling infrastructure to all AAA standard. What a great idea!
Must have solid policy backing. Policy needs to recognise and drive issues that are broader than just mobility, for example, safety, health, accessibility, housing affordability, liveability and environment.
High-frequency mass transit is critical in shifting more locals towards using active transportation modes and away from private vehicles. To achieve this, having a minimum grid, forward-thinking strategic decision making and close consultations with stakeholders were key to building interest and momentum.
This presentation was the first time I heard the term ‘conversational bike lanes’ as a way to describe the width of a bike lane. This is used to describe how some bike lanes need to be wider in some places where two bike riders can ride alongside each other (to chat conversationally) as well as having room for one rider coming in the opposite direction (as opposed to just one bike width going both directions). What a lovely ‘social’ way of understanding bike lane usability.
It was inspiring to hear from Dale what could be achieved with political will and a clear strategic vision. What a brilliant model for other cities – a bikable city is achievable.
I am sure I was not the only one in the audience thinking why/how Brisbane could get to this same kind of state.
A trip to Vancouver anyone?
Twitter: @Dale_Bracewell
All images my own and/or from Dale Bracewell’s PPT presentation.
This guest post is from Maeve Shearlaw, a multimedia journalist who writes for The Guardian. This post highlights the ambitious, yet challenging plans Uganda has to improve roads in the capital city, Kampala, for cyclists. A big thanks to Maeve for sharing her unique insights and experience! NG.
A typical scene from Kampala’s busy streets Photograph: Ronald Kabuubi/AP
Special cycle lanes have been promised and initiatives are trying to get people on two wheels, but enthusiasts admit Uganda’s capital has a long way to go.
Initiate a conversation about cycling in Kampala and it will probably go one of two ways. People either assume you’re talking about boda bodas, the motorbike taxis that snake dangerously through the city’s arteries. Or, understanding you mean a pushbike, they’ll laugh dismissively at the possibility of tackling Uganda’s capital on two wheels.
But according to city authorities, Kampala will soon be welcoming its own bike lane network in the central business district.
Walking and cycling account for 60% of the city’s journeys but the roads don’t accommodate them well. Commuters must contend with potholed-tarmac, open manhole covers, running sewage and dirt roads turning to mud baths when it rains.
Uganda’s roads are some of the most dangerous in the world: the safety of pedestrians and cyclists is a real concern, and in 2012 the government passed a law to better protect them.
Driving isn’t much fun either. Know as “the jam”, severe traffic is a daily headache for road users. Taxi driver Daniel Thembo says the city can be congested for hours every morning and evening, while “sometimes on Mondays and Fridays it lasts all day”.
Amanda Ngabirano, a lecturer in urban planning at Makerere University, puts this down to bad organisation rather than too many cars on the road. “We don’t have many traffic lights,” she says “so we all find ourselves at the same junction at the same time.”
Ngabirano is working with the Kampala Capital City Authority Association (KCCA) on plans for a downtown car-free zone for bicycles, which will start with a pilot on Namiermbe Road, a congested area almost impossible to navigate by car.
They’ve deliberately picked the most “hostile” and “complicated” part of the city to start with: “where the people are, and where there is demand,” she explains. “Once we succeed there we will able to change other places very quickly.” Construction is due to begin in December.
But planning is only part of the battle. For Ngabirano “the key intervention is to successfully convince politicians about what cycling could do for Uganda and Ugandans.”
At the moment, most people who use their bikes on the roads are those living in poverty. “When it’s not safe it’s for the person who has no other choice, and the person who has no other choice is poor, you cannot deny that relationship,” says Ngabirano.
“It does not make sense that we prioritise cars with four tyres, but we ignore normal human beings whose legs don’t have spare parts,” she adds, before mentioning climate change, another harbinger of change for the continent: “In Africa we need to get it straight: people first, cars second.”
Ngabirano’s love for cycling led her to be profiled as “babe of the week” by Uganda’s national newspaper, The Observer, which even led with the words “back in the day, it was an eyesore for a woman in Kampala to ride a bicycle”.
She wasn’t offended, she says. As one of the few women regularly cycling in the city she feels it’s a good thing that people take notice.
Yet she does recognise the need to for a special effort to get more women involved, who she says would benefit from the freedom bicycles can offer: “If the family has one car, it is for the man in the house. This makes the woman so dependent,” she explains.
Ngabirano isn’t the only one trying to encourage more cycling in the city: from car-free days, a free bike-sharing scheme at Makerere University for students to ride around campus, to the annual Tour De Kampala, the city is making meaningful strides to encouraging cyclists to take to its roads.
Source: Red Pepper.com
Source: New Vision. A cyclist squeezes his through traffic in Kampala. Photo by Matthias Mugish
