Urban cycling as the measure of the city: Experience, policy and the cultural politics of mobility

As the dominant mode of transportation in North America, the car-system has come to order our spatial allocations for work, home and play in the form of suburban sprawl. 'Car culture' contributes to the formation of broad social and political priorities and the phenomenological aspects of automobility informs and shapes the very way in which we experience the world. The ecological, health and social benefits of urban cycling are often touted by researchers and advocates, but less studied and appreciated is its uniqueness as a mode of phenomenological experience. Cycling allows for an immersive attenuation to the micro-climates and local topographies of urban space not available to the car-driver or pedestrian. Emergent North American urban 'bike cultures' can better promote the cause of cycling by dispensing with sub-cultural markings and embracing this shared experience of the local to create broad social impetus for the re-allocation of public spatial resources.;Keywords: Merleau-Ponty; corporeal mobilities ; spatial geography; shared topographies; velomobility; urban cycling; hyper-automobility; urban planning policy ; New Urbanism ; spatial practices; cultural politics; urban 'bike culture'; 'car culture'; auto-space; suburbia; social movements; sub-cultures; Critical Mass; 'velo-space'.;Research Areas: mobilities; phenomenology of experience; Marxist urban geography; cultural politics; urban planning and land use policy; sub-cultural studies.