Normalising cycling mobilities : an age-friendly approach to cycling in the Netherlands

den Hoed, Wilbert and Jarvis, Helen (2021) Normalising cycling mobilities : an age-friendly approach to cycling in the Netherlands. Applied Mobilities. ISSN 2380-0127 (https://doi.org/10.1080/23800127.2021.1872206)

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Abstract

Cycling is promoted as a form of urban travel with well-established benefits to health, liveability and wellbeing. These benefits are known to be larger for older people, a growing segment of many populations. Yet, support for the normalisation of cycling mobilities for 'all ages' varies considerably. It is usual to contrast 'low-cycling' contexts, such as the UK, with 'high-cycling' areas, typically favouring 'highest-rate' paradigmatic urban centres. To challenge a too simplistic imitation and re-creation of engineering solutions elsewhere, we draw attention to diverse cycling habits and norms in an 'ordinary' high-cycling area (suburban Rotterdam), and observe how cycling is normalised throughout the lifecourse. Using mobile and biographical methods, we argue that a more nuanced appreciation of cycling normalisation is gained from viewing ageing and cycling relationally and biographically. This is because the habit-forming realm of normalisation functions through both conscious decisions and unconscious practice, bound up with life events and the external environment. The findings suggest that age-friendly city strategies and urban mobility policies should more closely consider locally constituted social and cultural processes, beyond providing infrastructure. This article thus provides an in-depth account of what it takes for planning and policy to normalise positive, empowering, and age-friendly qualities in everyday mobility.

ORCID iDs

den Hoed, Wilbert ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1758-704X and Jarvis, Helen;
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)