I approach planning through a social lens. I like to envision how cities can make planning and design choices that build and foster community, while promoting healthy lifestyles and social interactions. In this vein, I believe that planning can be most effectively utilized to guide behavior without dictating it. As such, I find myself immediately drawn to the social and political infrastructure surrounding cycling in Europe, and how those perspectives influence bicycle planning. Naturally, my final project for this class focuses on social and political attitudes towards cycling in Denmark, Malmö, Amsterdam, Nijmegen, and Utrecht. These cities have different populations, geographical footprints, and demographics, but share a similar commitment to biking as a legitimate form of transportation.
In my opinion, social attitudes towards bicycle transportation can be divided into two phases: getting cyclists on the road by normalizing such transportation, and how such an abundance of urban cyclists impacts interactions between different modes on the street. Based on information collected through meetings with local professionals, I have noticed that cycling is often framed as a safer alternative to cars, which specifically pose as a threat to children’s safety and independence. In short, cycling is the optimal family-friendly mode of transportation. This commitment is codified through childhood education programs about cycling safety and infrastructure that allows kids to build confidence on a bike. Furthermore, it is widely believed in these cities that children develop an ingrained preference for cycling when they see their parents using bikes on a daily basis. With this in mind, I firmly believe that transportation planners can begin pushing the United States in a more cycling-friendly direction by investing in programs geared towards children and young adults.
What happens once cycling is normalized? Ideally, cities see more folks on bikes, which then impacts how street space is used and shared. In the cities I visited, I noticed that drivers are forced to be more aware of their surroundings by virtue of more road space being dedicated to cyclists. This is a perfect example of how intentional design can guide, but not dictate, road behavior. In an ideal scenario, though, American cities can first normalize cycling, which then inherently affects how multi-modal interactions play out on the street.
Finally, my project will explore how political attitudes form the debate around and the adoption of cycling. I strongly believe that bicycle transportation ultimately comes down to a matter of political will and how much energy local officials and planners want to expend on pursuing bicycle-friendly urban planning. Take this picture of a Dutch street below:
This street underwent such a drastic transformation because local decision makers willed it into existence. With this in mind, I believe that a more bicycle-friendly America is possible, so long as we have the proper advocates in place to make that dream a reality.
Of course, my project analyzes these aspects of cycling in greater depth, but this blog post provides a high-level summary of what I discuss in my report. In doing so, I look forward to exploring social and political strategies to achieve a more bicycle-friendly version of the United States.
