Examining Inequalities in Cycling Motility: A Pathway Towards Cycling Justice

Abstract

Realizing the environmental and social benefits of cycling requires effective policies that deliver increased and inclusive cycling. This thesis aims to contribute to the development of such policies by providing insights into what could make cycling achievable for more diverse social groups through engaging with theoretical perspectives from transport geography, the mobilities paradigm and social justice. In doing so the thesis examines the various elements that constitute an individual’s potential to use a bicycle and the connected inequalities. The thesis employs conceptions of accessibility and motility in combination with measures of inequality to examine the socio-spatial inequalities in cycling potentials. The first paper designs a new composite indicator based on Theil’s index of inequality and accessibility measures to study inequalities in bike-and-ride opportunities in Malmö. The second paper develops a quantitative operationalization of cycling motility by applying GIS-based and statistical analyses to empirical data collected using a survey study. Specifically, cycling motility is operationalized along three dimensions of access, competence, and appropriation. This is done by measuring cycling-related material and nonmaterial, as well as objective and subjective factors related to individuals and their social, cultural, and geographical environment. The subsequent papers put the concept of cycling motility in practice. The third paper builds on the approach developed in the second paper and examines inequalities in the cycling motility across different social groups from the three-dimensional justice lens of Nancy Fraser. Finally, the fourth paper provides insights into the relationships between individuals’ cycling motility and their realized mobility. The empirical findings highlight that such relationships vary across three urban contexts of Malmö, Gothenburg, and Beijing. Overall, the findings support that the operationalization of cycling motility is useful for studying individuals’ cycling potentials and capturing the connected between-individual differences, thereby helpful for development of policies that could realize the social and environmental potentials of cycling.