Conveners
Social Inequalities in the Cycling Experience
- Claire Pelgrims (Université libre de Bruxelles)
Description
Cycling is an increasingly common mode of transport in urban areas (Goel et al. 2022), although the proportion of journeys made by bicycle varies considerably from one country to another and from one city to another. Active mobility is increasingly taken into account in public policies, but these tend to overlook the impact and persistence of mobility policies on social inequalities (Nogueira 2023). Recent work has highlighted the way in which new cycle infrastructure networks can reinforce socio-spatial segregation (Jahanshahi et al. 2021). The narrow framing of cycling's potential as a replacement technology for the car favours the utilitarian cyclist and reduces the diversity of cycling repersentations and practices (Spinney 2020; Valentini 2024). The issue of equity in utilitarian cycling is multifaceted and essential, whether in terms of access to infrastructure and to key destinations or cycling policies in general (differentiated knowledge of supply, road safety, etc.). Bringing together researchers in history, sociology, geography, urban studies, and beyond, this panel is dedicated to exploring the past and present of these social inequalities in the experience of cycling through consideration of the embodied and situated experience of cycling, as well as the meanings and imaginaries of bicycles within different social groups. Participants are especially invited to present papers on the spatiality, materiality and sensitivity of cycling infrastructure networks, the resulting accessibility of infrastructure and equipment, and the issues this raises in terms of the inclusiveness of the transition to sustainable mobility. The session seeks to understand these issues across urban and rural contexts with a wide range of case studies and plural approaches. The objectives are to discuss desirability differentials according to social class, gender, ethnic and socio-economic status, and their fluctuations over time. The session seeks to provide an overview of current cutting-edge research in this field.
In recent years, the 15-Minute City idea and its reliance on cycling as standard means of transport has been established as a major pillar of a socially inclusive and healthy transformations towards sustainable urban mobility. Against this backdrop, we elaborate in this paper on questions of equi-ty and justice in the context of low-density settings on the fringes of a medium-sized city (Graz,...
The multiple and intersectional benefits of cycling are well-documented, yet in spatially and socially inequitable regions like South Yorkshire, UK, increasing uptake is about more than overall magnitude. A pursuit of equitable and inclusive cycling requires the recognition of the variability of human experience, which points to a research programme that foregrounds the nuanced, contextual...
In the late 2010s, local authorities in Bogota declared their ambition to transform their city into the "world's bicycle capital" (Peñalosa, 2019). The steady increase in the modal share of cycling, currently estimated at approximately 7%, bears witness to this political commitment to a real momentum. However, Bogota remains a highly spatially segregated city (Mayorga Henao, 2023), which...
