Friday, January 23, 2009

Attitudes to cycling

I just read the research study Attitudes to Cycling: a qualitative study and conceptual framework (1997) by DG Davies, ME Halliday, M Mays and RL Pocock published by the Transport Research Laboratory in the UK. One of the most striking features of the the paper was its ability to distinguish between given "rationalisations" (rain, hills, traffic) for not cycling and some more latent reasons for not cycling. For what appeared as a rather mainstream scientific study, I was amazed that it looked at issues such as social status, gender norms, sexuality, and control of ones environment (spatial mastery). Check out some of these conceptual diagrams (click on the pics to view properly).

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1 comment:

David Hembrow said...

It's a long time since I last saw those pages !

It's very good stuff. The first picture, showing social pressures and exposure to social and subjective safety issues particularly highlights something that the Dutch take very seriously.

Cycling here is normal including for teenagers. Courting couples cycle along hand in hand, transport each other (usually boy transporting girl) side-saddle on the carrier. It's a nice way to spend time together. The second video here shows this in action.