Cycling case closed? A situated response to Samuel Nello-Deakin's “Environmental determinants of cycling: Not seeing the forest for the trees?”

Abstract

This paper responds to Samuel Nello-Deakin's (2020) recent viewpoint, where he provocatively states that we already know enough of what is necessary to get more people to cycle: taking road space away from motor vehicles and ceding it to cyclists is a simple formula applicable in most cities around the world, provided there is political will. Further research, he claims, is unlikely to deliver new policy insights. This paper cautions against universalising the experiences of European “cycling cities” and suggests that turning to cities of the global South can animate cycling research in promising new directions. Fundamentally, it argues that it is necessary to situate cycling research and proposes worlding cycling research as a strategy to move away from Eurocentric visions of cycling cities. In doing so, it proposes avenues for further enquiry that take seriously the complex political challenges faced by cities of the global South, as well as the particular desires, aspirations and innovations of their inhabitants.