Public Bicycles: A New Form of Urban Mobility Shaped by and Shaping the City

IPH Open Conference Tue 14 Oct 2014

Damien Ó TuamaDoctoral CandidateSociology Department

1 – Introduction

Public bikes [2]

Research focus and approach [3]

Findings [4]

Conclusions [5]

2 – Public Bike Schemes

Definition of public bike schemes:

a mobility service mainly implemented in an urban environment for local trips.

They are schemes for hiring bicycles for short periods and, through the lack of personal bicycle ownership and through the sharing of bicycles by a large number of people, they evoke the concept of a public service (Beroud and Anaya, 2012: 271)

users should be able to drop off a public bicycle in a different place from where it was picked up…

hire points are located in the public domain so that there is a possibility of interaction with and accessibility for any public space user (ibid 271-272).

Origin of concept (“1st Generation”)

Amsterdam, July 1965

“2nd Generation”

“3rd Generation”

Overarching trends over 50 years..

Increased (public) institutional involvement

Systematising of concept

Corporatizing of concept

720 schemes globally / 814,000 bikes (Meddin and DeMaio, 2014)

1996 – Green Party White Bike Stunt in Dublin city

• dublinbikes launched in Sept 2009 • 450 bikes / 40 stations• By 2010, 550 bikes / 44 stations• 2014, 1500 bikes / 110 stations• 42,000 annual subscribers (June 2014)• 8 million journeys over 5 year period (Sept 2014)

3 – Research Focus and Approach

My Research Questions:

What is distinctive about journeying on public bikes? [not the focus of this presentation]

What (if any) were the ripple effects of introducing this new mobility system or socio-technical system into the city?

Mobilities (versus transport studies)

Sociology of Technology

Transitions

Exploratory research

Case study design with two strandsdublinbikes journeys [not the focus of presn]Systems

Mixed methods Interviews with key informants

Multi-level Perspective (MLP)

Geels and Schot, 2007

Secondary quantitative data (Census, Dublin city counts etc.) and analysis

Documents and analyses Statutory Plans (Dev Plan, LAP’s…) Policy Docs (National and Local) Engineering design Briefs Reports (Local Authority) Web pages of Cycling Campaign, Property

Developers, Cultural Institutions etc. Newspaper articles Radio programmes TV programmes

[Ch 04 – Quick summ]

4 – Findings

4.1 – Politics and Advocacy

Shifting political priorities?

Re-energising advocacy

According to Will Andrews (former Chairperson of Dublin Cycling Campaign, the intensive uptake of dublinbike use by the business community enabled campaigners to demonstrate that cycling was “an activity for those not ostensibly interested in health / environmental benefits” and, more generally, that “cycling was very efficient as a transport mode in the DB catchment, and that the Dublin centre was well suited to cycling”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujbiR8LwwLM#t=75

4.2 – Infrastructures & Speed Reduction

Grand Canal Cycleway

North Quays Cycleway

30kph zone

One way streets?

30kph zone

4.3 – Coalitions & Knowledges

New actors in mobility regime

Shifting relationships between other actors

Techno-scientific knowledge

4.4 – Discourses

Corporate associations

The Apprentice – opening sequence

Multi-level Perspective (MLP)

Geels and Schot, 2007

5 – Conclusions DIY to Ecological Modernisation

A complex systems lens and transition framework encourages one to take a much broader look at the processes associated with embedding a socio-technical system in a city – as against a ‘silo-thinking’ approach.

Broader shifts are now unfolding

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