Safe cycling space: How it is produced and experienced by cyclists

Abstract

The recognition of cycling as a beneficial mode of transportation and leisure pursuit and the need for dedicated changes to the built environment continue to grow. However, cities worldwide dedicate very little of their budgets to cycling infrastructure, and investment remains contentious. By focusing attention on education and law enforcement, cities abstract, detract from, and dehumanize cycling space. Doing so obfuscates the complexity of cycling safety and its entanglement with the built environment. Inspired by Lefebvre’s spatial triad and “the right to the city,” this paper engages with local cyclists to expose the social production of “safe cycling space,” how it reproduces, and how cyclists resist. The findings include an ongoing tension between drivers and cyclists, cyclists taking safety into their own hands, and calling for better infrastructure to denote cycling space. In doing so, they offer direction to make cycling safer for individuals and to increase participation.