The Politics of Cycling Infrastructure : Spaces and (In)Equality

Academic texts on cycling research are expanding rapidly. A dominant theme among these is the use of infrastructure measures to assist promotion of cycling as part of a movement towards sustainable mobility. Physical infrastructure is currently posited as the primary key to unlock cycling’s potential as a primary mode of sustainable transport. Individual studies rarely stand together to be read back to back, in order to allow comparison between them. The privilege of academic conferences is that they allow the attendee to compare and contrast different academic agendas and concerns of researchers, and to engage in conversation between them. This volume provides a comparative assessment of existing and historic struggles over cycling infrastructure. The aim of this volume is to bring a selection of those parallel voices together and to initiate that dialogue for a wider audience. It is argued that planning is one element of the operation, but what results is often very different from even the most comprehensive strategic imagination. Underlying this chaos however, is a lurking sense that the broader lessons of infrastructure provision for cycling needs to be connected with the political analyses of infrastructuring that derive from wider studies. The book concludes that infrastructures are in constantly in flux, contentious and contended. Furthermore, it concludes that politics is also embodied; lived out in the spaces of mundane and everyday travel. Front cover Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents List of figures, tables and box Notes on contributors Introduction 1. Theorising infrastructure: a politics of spaces and edges 2. The cultural politics of infrastructure: the case of Louis Botha Avenue in Johannesburg, South Africa 3. Spatial dimensions of the marginalisation of cycling – marginalisation through rationalisation? 4. Mental barriers in planning for cycling 5. Safety, risk and road traffic danger: towards a transformational approach to the dominant ideology 6. What constructs a cycle city? A comparison of policy narratives in Newcastle and Bremen 7. Hard work in paradise. The contested making of Amsterdam as a cycling city 8. Conflictual politics of sustainability: cycling organisations and the Øresund crossing 9. Vélomobility in Copenhagen – a perfect world? 10. Navigating cycling infrastructure in Sofia, Bulgaria 11. Cycling advocacy in São Paulo: influence and effects in politics Conclusion Index Back cover This book offers a critical examination of existing cycling structures and the current policy and practices used to promote cycling in Europe. An international range of contributors provide an interdisciplinary analysis of the complex cultural politics of infrastructural provision and interrogate the pervasive bias against cyclists in city planning and transport systems across the globe.Infrastructural planning is revealed to be an intensely political act and its meaning variable according to larger political processes and contexts. The book also considers questions surrounding safety and risk, urban space wars and sustainable futures, connecting this to broader questions about citizenship and justice in contemporary cities. -- [4ème de couverture] "This book offers a critical examination of existing cycling structures and the current policy and practices used to promote cycling. An international range of contributors provide an interdisciplinary analysis of the complex cultural politics of infrastructural provision and interrogate the pervasive bias against cyclists in city planning and transport systems across the globe. Infrastructural planning is revealed to be an intensely political act and its meaning variable according to larger political processes and contexts. The book also considers questions surrounding safety and risk, urban space wars and sustainable futures, connecting this to broader questions about citizenship and justice in contemporary cities."-- Provided by publisher

This book offers a critical examination of existing cycling structures and the current policy and practices used to promote cycling. An international range of contributors provide an interdisciplinary analysis of the complex cultural politics of infrastructural provision and interrogate the pervasive bias against cyclists in city planning and transport systems across the globe. Infrastructural planning is revealed to be an intensely political act and its meaning variable according to larger political processes and contexts. The book also considers questions surrounding safety and risk, urban space wars and sustainable futures, connecting this to broader questions about citizenship and justice in contemporary cities.

This book offers a critical examination of existing cycling structures and the current policy and practices used to promote cycling in Europe. An international range of contributors provide an interdisciplinary analysis of the complex cultural politics of infrastructural provision and interrogate the pervasive bias against cyclists in city planning and transport systems across the globe. Infrastructural planning is revealed to be an intensely political act and its meaning variable according to larger political processes and contexts. The book also considers questions surrounding safety and risk, urban space wars and sustainable futures, connecting this to broader questions about citizenship and justice in contemporary cities This Volume Casts A Critical Gaze On Current Practices And On The Wider Relationship Of Bicycling To Other Forms Of Urban Mobility, Especially Within The Context Of Sustainable And Livable Cities. The Book's International Contributors Provide An Interdisciplinary Critical Analysis Of Policy And Practice. This Book Examines Existing Cycling Structures And The Current Policies And Practices Used To Promote Cycling In Europe. Its Interdisciplinary Analysis Considers The Cultural Politics Of Infrastructural Provision And Connects This To Questions Of Sustainability, Citizenship And Justice In Cities. This text examines existing cycling structures and the current policies and practices used to promote cycling in Europe. Its interdisciplinary analysis considers the cultural politics of infrastructural provision and connects this to questions of sustainability, citizenship, and justice in cities