Bike-friendly societies

The bicycle is experiencing a new era. Sales data, the expansion of cycle tourism, the widespread urban use of bikes and alternative vehicles—somehow linked to new forms of mobility in environments that are not very bike-friendly—and a new cultural sensitivity toward the ecological transition are among the indicators of its rediscovery. In the memory of many, the bike is associated with pleasant experiences of exploration and freedom. The bicycle is considered a convivial technology (Illich, 1973; Pivato, 2021), capable of creating balanced modes of relationship with the environment. Many cities and regions have invested in cycling and encouraged speed moderation in urban spaces. On World Bicycle Day, however, it is important to remember that cycling practice is not as widespread as one might expect.

The delay in cycle mobility

To understand the reasons for the ‘delay’ in the spread of cycle mobility—which are particularly significant in our country, despite commendable exceptions and a notable increase in the number of bicycles in circulation since the lockdown period—a national research network has been developed through the collaboration between researchers from IRPPS CNR, the University of Naples ‘Federico II’, the University of Turin, the University of Padua, the University of Siena, the University of Salerno, and the FIAB Research Center. This emerging network has given rise to a successful series of online seminars that can still be viewed today; it has also produced a ‘special issue’ in the journal Eracle (Landri & Tirino, 2022) and is currently working on a book about bikes and society. The network, as has been understood, is unique and tends to follow ‘in miniature’ the international Cycling & Society network, which has been the reference point for scientific production in this sector for several years (Cox, 2020; Cox & Bunte, 2018; Equality & Cox, 2020).

The theme of cycle mobility is expanding in terms of the number of publications. It can, therefore, already be observed that the ‘delay’ in the spread of the bicycle runs parallel to the ‘delay’ in the development of academic communities that look at the bicycle. In comparison, scientific literature on the car is widely diffused. The rediscovery of the bike, even on an academic level, essentially confronts us with a given fact: contemporary societies are car-centric (Urry, 2004) and present varying degrees of sensitivity toward cycling practice (Belloni, 2019).

Countries can, in fact, differ in relation to national cycling cultures. Italy has a sporting cycling culture, but not a widespread cycling culture (except in some regions), as in other countries like the Netherlands or Belgium. Cycling cultures, however, are not immutable; they can regenerate, evolve over time, and emerge where they are not present. Analyzing the cultural dimension, as emerged during the special issue edited by two researchers from the research network on bikes and society (Landri & Tirino, 2022), is a promising research path to understand what encourages cycle mobility.

Media encourages cycle mobility

Among the factors that encourage it, the media plays a prominent role. The epic narrative of cycling emerged in our country precisely in relation to the processes of building the national state. Today, that narrative is giving way to the dynamic storytelling of cyclists on social media. On one hand, social platforms capture cycling within the extractivist logic of digital capitalism; on the other, they create new sporting practices such as virtual cycling (which is now one of several e-Sports), but also favor the emergence of new subjectivities (women, LGBT+ communities), broadening cycling practice. Unlike traditional media that aimed at creating the epic deeds of champions, social media, by encouraging the circulation of knowledge among practitioners, allows for an increase in connections, sociality, and communication, lowering the barriers to entry for the practice. In short, by democratizing knowledge, they act as positive incentives for the spread of cycling.

Media is necessary, but not sufficient. Building bike-friendly societies is actually also a scientific challenge that requires a constant flow of empirical research and theoretical reflection. It is, in fact, about generating knowledge to foster minimum conditions for cyclability in environments that are predominantly designed in a car-centric way. It is not just a technical matter; rather, as is emerging from the network’s work, it requires the development of a sociology of the bicycle, understood as the search for a virtuous concatenation between knowledge, techniques, and society.

Edited by Paolo Landri (on the occasion of World Bicycle Day, June 3, 2023)

Bibliographic references

Belloni, E. (2019). Quando si andava in velocipede. Storia della mobilità ciclistica in Italia (1870-1955). Franco Angeli.

Cox, P. (2020). Cycling: A Sociology of Vélomobility. Routledge.

Cox, P., & Bunte, H. (2018). Social practices and the importance of context. Framing the Third Cycling Century, 122–131. https://www.umweltbundesamt.de/sites/default/files/medien/1410/publikationen/181128_uba_fb_third_cycling_century_bf_small.pdf

Equality, I., & Cox, P. (2020). The politics of cycling infrastructure. The Politics of Cycling Infrastructure, 5940. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvvsqc63

Illich, I. (1973). Tools for conviviality. Harper and Row.

Landri, P., & Tirino, M. (2022). Media, Society and Cycling Cultures: Editorial. Eracle. Journal of Sport and Social Sciences, 5(1), 1–4. https://doi.org/10.6093/2611-6693/9612

Pivato, S. (2021). La felicità in bicicletta. Il Mulino.

Urry, J. (2004). The ‘System’ of Automobility. Theory, Culture & Society, 21(5), 25–39. https://doi.org/10.1177/0263276404046059