The human infrastructure of a cycling city: Amsterdam through the eyes of international newcomers

Abstract

Although place-specific social norms play at least as important a role as physical factors in encouraging cycling in mature cycling cities, few studies have explored these factors in detail. In order to address this research gap, this paper offers a qualitative exploration of what makes Amsterdam a "cycling city". Through semi-structured interviews, the article explores the main factors which encourage cycling uptake among international newcomers to Amsterdam. Instead of relying on a division between "hard" and "soft" factors, we approach the city as a sociotechnical system, arguing that the material and social factors which encourage cycling in Amsterdam are co-constitutive. We identify seven main factors encouraging cycling, whichtend to be mutually reinforcing and highlight the critical role of the "human infrastructure" formed by cyclists themselves in encouraging cycling. Finally, our analysis uncovers a temporal dimension of cycling uptake, showing that many newcomers become increasingly reliant on cycling over time.

Unpacking policy transfer as a situated practice: blending social, spatial, and sensory learning at a conference

“…Here it is hard to ignore the powerful role of emotions, joy, and fun so evident throughout this case, and confirmed in other studies on cycling participation (i.e. Glaser et al 2020a;Jensen 2013;Nello-Deakin and Nikolaeva 2020).…”

Scaling up cycling or replacing driving? Triggers and trajectories of bike–train uptake in the Randstad area

“…As a result of our focus on the Netherlands, where almost everyone has a pre-existing "cycling habitus" (Kuipers 2013;Nello-Deakin and Nikolaeva 2020), our study's ability to gauge the importance of previous familiarity with cycling in contributing to bike-train uptake is inevitably limited. While our findings show that people who take up bike-train tend to be regular cyclists who operate in a social environment where bike-train use is common, the relative lack of "non-cyclists" in the Netherlands makes it difficult to falsify this claim.…”

Mobility needs, activity patterns and activity flexibility: How subjective and objective constraints influence mode choice

“…While we expect that this finding is transferable to other cities with a distinct cycling culture, in particular cities in the Netherlands (Carstensen and Ebert, 2019;Haustein et al, 2019b;Nello-Deakin and Nikolaeva, 2020), the bike does not play a relevant role as an alternative to the car in low-cycling countries. Thus, in lowcycling countries the relation we found between complex activity patterns, perceived mobility needs and the use of individual modes, is probably restricted to car use.…”