Marco Te Brömmelstroet

This article explores change in the mobile geographies of bicycle courier work as a result of platform economy influences, with a focus on how agency of movement characteristic of messenger culture is maintained or altered through the use of algorithmic routing and management of the delivery process. A mixed-methods approach based in Amsterdam and Oslo uses participatory geographic Information systems (PGIS) to map bicycle couriers’ spatial preferences in their working environment;… Meer weergeven

This article explores change in the mobile geographies of bicycle courier work as a result of platform economy influences, with a focus on how agency of movement characteristic of messenger culture is maintained or altered through the use of algorithmic routing and management of the delivery process. A mixed-methods approach based in Amsterdam and Oslo uses participatory geographic Information systems (PGIS) to map bicycle couriers’ spatial preferences in their working environment; semi-structured interviews to approach mobile decision making; and (auto)ethnographic data to consider the embodiment of movement across both case studies. This article provides an updated empirical understanding of couriers’ mobile, urban geography compared with pre-platform messenger work, while examining the role of new organizational technologies on movement using a Lefebvrian spatial framework, emphasizing the gaps between spaces as exploitable by different actors in the delivery work sphere. The results show both a new, extended spatiality of bicycle-based work enabled by associated technologies, alongside both the loss and adoption of new means of appropriating urban and digital spaces resulting from algorithmic control of the delivery process. Minder weergeven

The domain of road safety has a longstanding history in academic research and a well-established position in policy circles. In different contexts in different degrees, this has resulted in important and meaningful interventions that increased overall safety statistics. But are researchers and policy-makers in this domain also reflecting on the underlying values and worldviews on which these interventions are build? Do we fully grasp the choices that are embedded in those values and on how… Meer weergeven

The domain of road safety has a longstanding history in academic research and a well-established position in policy circles. In different contexts in different degrees, this has resulted in important and meaningful interventions that increased overall safety statistics. But are researchers and policy-makers in this domain also reflecting on the underlying values and worldviews on which these interventions are build? Do we fully grasp the choices that are embedded in those values and on how these then solidify into our guidelines, streetscapes and behaviour? In this position paper, I argue that those underlying choices are exactly what is holding back real radical change in making our roads and traffic safe. To do so, I discuss seven mechanisms in how road safety is currently studied, discussed and designed that might aggravate the inherent unsafety it aims to reduce. Building on this, the final part of the paper aims to open up the underlying values by proposing seven potential ‘what-ifs’ away from focusing on increasing road safety to instead explicitly focus on reducing the systemic danger. Minder weergeven

When evaluating cycling subjective experiences (CSE), mobility researchers have questioned the depictions of cycling as an efficient, fast, and solitary mobility mode. By reframing cycling in terms of its emotional impact on the cyclist, research to date has explored dimensions such as fun, relaxation, and sociability of cycling experiences. Yet, these insights have not been integrated into a holistic understanding of CSE. Addressing this gap, this paper asks: what is the CSE exactly and how do… Meer weergeven

When evaluating cycling subjective experiences (CSE), mobility researchers have questioned the depictions of cycling as an efficient, fast, and solitary mobility mode. By reframing cycling in terms of its emotional impact on the cyclist, research to date has explored dimensions such as fun, relaxation, and sociability of cycling experiences. Yet, these insights have not been integrated into a holistic understanding of CSE. Addressing this gap, this paper asks: what is the CSE exactly and how do we measure it? We selected and analysed in-depth 50 articles with the aim of unpacking the innate characteristics of CSE. The paper makes a contribution to the research on CSE by presenting a novel framework that clarifies the relationships within existing literature, and identifies measurement methods aligned with this framework. The three interrelated core aspects of CSE are 1) sensory interpretation, 2) affective states, and 3) cognitive construction. Additionally, the three identified methods are 1) retrospective, 2) interceptive, and 3) mobile methods. Notably, retrospective surveys and interviews emerged as the dominant methods employed in the field. However, there has been a growing interest in mobile methods, which enable the collection of real-time and context-specific data, thereby enhancing the generalizability of research findings. Through our analysis we have found that the positive values of cycling experiences have been largely ignored in our sample of studies, revealing a bias of researchers to focus on mobility as a disutility. Based on our findings, we urge planners and scholars to rethink their implicit efforts to mitigate the negative effects of cycling experiences and look for opportunities to optimize for positive cycling experiences. Minder weergeven

Intensive parenting has become a key term for analysing the pressures and priorities of contemporary western parenting culture. For mobility studies it provides a discursive framework for understanding why children’s leisure has shifted from free play and mobility towards various adult-led organised activities and why parents deem it necessary to control children’s leisure journeys in an unprecedented manner. Most of the research on parenting and mobility has explained these trends with urban… Meer weergeven

Intensive parenting has become a key term for analysing the pressures and priorities of contemporary western parenting culture. For mobility studies it provides a discursive framework for understanding why children’s leisure has shifted from free play and mobility towards various adult-led organised activities and why parents deem it necessary to control children’s leisure journeys in an unprecedented manner. Most of the research on parenting and mobility has explained these trends with urban risks and safeguarding, but this paper highlights how parents also control, manage and enable children’s mobility to resource and enrich them with various dispositions. We use children’s mobility experiments and parents’ interviews to explain two contrasting representations of children’s mobility—intensive car-parenting and childhood velonomy—in a local community in Finland. The paper sheds new light on how community and place shape parents’ notions of parenting, childhood and mobility. Minder weergeven

Various measures to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 have altered mobility flows worldwide and caused people to adopt new ways of being and moving in public space. These changes have been considerably pronounced across modes of public transportation. This paper explores the experiences of individuals who continued riding and working in public transport throughout the pandemic to yield insight into changing mobility meanings and grounded realities of urban mobility processes in the context of… Meer weergeven

Various measures to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 have altered mobility flows worldwide and caused people to adopt new ways of being and moving in public space. These changes have been considerably pronounced across modes of public transportation. This paper explores the experiences of individuals who continued riding and working in public transport throughout the pandemic to yield insight into changing mobility meanings and grounded realities of urban mobility processes in the context of COVID-19 and beyond. Through the combined analysis of ethnographic fieldwork, participant observations and interviews, the paper unpacks lived experiences of riding and working in public transport in the city of Amsterdam during lockdown by addressing the changed nature of embodied encounters and mobile sociability in public transit. Findings denote that COVID-19 has altered the conditions of mobile sociability in spaces of public transport, and has produced complex experiences of daily travel with others involving mutually negative and positive impressions. As a result, we argue that when challenged by COVID-19 related restrictions, mobile sociability and fleeting encounters on the move significantly shape the experience of traveling with others in ways that call into question how we think of public transport as a social space in cities. Minder weergeven

The private car, as a dominant form of everyday mobilities across Australia and around the globe, continues to create a significant level of social and spatial injustice. Children are disproportionally affected by such injustices, not just through the loss of their basic rights to roam their local environments freely and safely due to traffic safety concerns and being greatly susceptible to illnesses generated by car-inducing pollution and noise, but also through being at the greatest risk of… Meer weergeven

The private car, as a dominant form of everyday mobilities across Australia and around the globe, continues to create a significant level of social and spatial injustice. Children are disproportionally affected by such injustices, not just through the loss of their basic rights to roam their local environments freely and safely due to traffic safety concerns and being greatly susceptible to illnesses generated by car-inducing pollution and noise, but also through being at the greatest risk of being hit by drivers. Road crashes continue to be the leading cause of death for children globally and our current – and decades long – ways of dealing with road violence are inadequate and counter-productive as they distract from what actually needs to be done. Utilising Boyden’s framing of cultural maladaptation, this paper conceptualises current maladaptive transport discourses and discusses how they continue to harm the health and well-being of children. The paper highlights the need for the recognition of these maladaptive discourses, including our worldviews, languages and principles in order to replace them with new narratives which enable the transition to a future where children’s mobility needs and rights are honoured. Minder weergeven

Despite a growing body of literature, the relationship between transport investment and regional economic development remains elusive. Individual studies highlight certain aspects but neglect others, and yet do not add up to a holistic framework. This paper engages with this gap by developing a holistic conceptual framework based on the synthesis of the literature. A list of variables and relationships were extracted and classified into a broad framework representing common elements of a… Meer weergeven

Despite a growing body of literature, the relationship between transport investment and regional economic development remains elusive. Individual studies highlight certain aspects but neglect others, and yet do not add up to a holistic framework. This paper engages with this gap by developing a holistic conceptual framework based on the synthesis of the literature. A list of variables and relationships were extracted and classified into a broad framework representing common elements of a regional economic system. Then, a causal loop diagram (CLD) was produced as a conceptual model by employing a system dynamics method that captures the interaction of the elements. The conceptual model reveals that the underlying mechanisms of regional economic development represent a complex and dynamic process engaging multiple factors, causalities, and temporal dynamics. Transport investment improves the attractiveness of regions and generates economic activities, reinforcing further investments, thereby fostering regional GDP and urban growth. The conditions of interregional transport infrastructure determine where cities can emerge and grow, and urban transport infrastructure conditions guide how big (population) and wide (area) a city can become. Three additional soft policies (urban transport, urban policies, and institutions and innovation) influence the attractiveness of regions and their economic activities. The time and scales of the policy inputs may produce different outcomes, i.e., city(ies) size and regional GDP, leading to income inequality across regions. We conclude that the generated conceptual model offers a distinct contribution by originally mapping the links between different studies and provides an overarching framework for further explorations. Minder weergeven

Our mainstream mobility thinking is narrowly framed: it highlights the role of mobility in economic and urban growth, individual speed and system efficiency, but obscures its role in reproducing inequalities, and in driving unsustainable developments on a global scale. Critically, however, this narrative obscures our view on the increasingly problematic societal and environmental ‘externalities’ of mobility, such as its significant contribution to climate change, air pollution, social… Meer weergeven

Our mainstream mobility thinking is narrowly framed: it highlights the role of mobility in economic and urban growth, individual speed and system efficiency, but obscures its role in reproducing inequalities, and in driving unsustainable developments on a global scale. Critically, however, this narrative obscures our view on the increasingly problematic societal and environmental ‘externalities’ of mobility, such as its significant contribution to climate change, air pollution, social exclusion, deaths and injuries, public health issues and landscape degradation. With such high stakes for our common mobility futures, how can we identify seeds of emerging alternatives, nurture and amplify their potential impact and empower emerging alternative futures? Minder weergeven

Decrease of children’s independent mobility (CIM) has worried academics, policymakers, educators and other professionals for decades. Research and policy often emphasise that promoting children’s physically active and independent transport modes as cycling is important to achieve better public health, solve environmental challenges and increase related economic benefits. Yet, cycling promotion is not a neutral process and all promotion efforts are derived from latent notions of ‘cyclists’ and… Meer weergeven

Decrease of children’s independent mobility (CIM) has worried academics, policymakers, educators and other professionals for decades. Research and policy often emphasise that promoting children’s physically active and independent transport modes as cycling is important to achieve better public health, solve environmental challenges and increase related economic benefits. Yet, cycling promotion is not a neutral process and all promotion efforts are derived from latent notions of ‘cyclists’ and ‘cycling’. This paper discusses different rationalities of childhood cycling promotion and the representations of ‘children’ as independent ‘cyclists’ they entail. We argue that in order to efficiently promote cycling across contexts, we should better understand children’s cycling experiences and meanings they ascribe to it and how their mobilities emergence in the flux of social, institutional and political relations. By applying action research to a local cycling promotion project in Finland we explore how instrumental, functional and alternative rationalities emerged and resulted in differing representations of children as cyclists. While all rationalities played a role in different stages of the project, the results highlight that alternative rationalities as children’s autonomy, positive emotions and friendships were considered the most important drivers of new cycling practices among project participants. In conclusion we propose children’s autonomous mobility as the most appropriate term to depict their cycling and other self-imposed (but relational) mobility practices. Minder weergeven

The dominant tradition in transport planning and policy practice considers travel as a derived activity and travel time as an economic disutility. A growing body of literature is challenging this perspective, demonstrating that being ‘on the move’ is a rich experience interlaced with profound shared and individual meanings that can have positive implications on quality of life, well-being and personal development. Yet, mobility in general, and commuting in particular, is often reported as one… Meer weergeven

The dominant tradition in transport planning and policy practice considers travel as a derived activity and travel time as an economic disutility. A growing body of literature is challenging this perspective, demonstrating that being ‘on the move’ is a rich experience interlaced with profound shared and individual meanings that can have positive implications on quality of life, well-being and personal development. Yet, mobility in general, and commuting in particular, is often reported as one of the least pleasant daily experiences and as a source of massive environmental impacts. This exploratory article hypothesizes that flow theory, based on Csikszentmihalyi´s seminal work on optimal states of consciousness, has the potential to offer important insights that can contribute to research and policy action on achieving both sustainable and satisfying forms of daily mobility. The article draws on an online exploratory questionnaire in order to reflect on flow theory in relation to the capacity of different mobility modes to either facilitate or constrain the occurrence and duration of optimal states of consciousness. Preliminary conclusions provide a basis for outlining a set of future research directions aimed at better understanding mobility experiences and their relationships with flow theory. Minder weergeven

Traffic crashes undeniably levy a significant and detrimental toll on contemporary societies. They are a disruption of every-day traffic order, and the specifics of their coverage in the media offer insights into how a society frames and perceives this underlying order.

This study analysed the terms and frames that are used in 368 reports on traffic crashes in local Dutch newspapers. The coding is embedded in the larger debates about competing frames of mobility (efficiency versus… Meer weergeven

Traffic crashes undeniably levy a significant and detrimental toll on contemporary societies. They are a disruption of every-day traffic order, and the specifics of their coverage in the media offer insights into how a society frames and perceives this underlying order.

This study analysed the terms and frames that are used in 368 reports on traffic crashes in local Dutch newspapers. The coding is embedded in the larger debates about competing frames of mobility (efficiency versus justice), and informed by recent studies on traffic crash reporting. The study adds a novel geographical context to the Northern American focus of earlier work, and a broader scope of traffic crash types (including non-fatal crashes and all vehicle types).

The reviewed articles support the previous findings that media coverage largely dehumanizes traffic crashes, presenting them more as glitches in the machine (efficiency) than human tragedies (justice). Crashes are presented as episodes instead of as part of a larger pattern, in a factual tone. Parties involved in a crash, and especially secondary parties are most often referred to as vehicles instead of persons and most often the headlines use a non-agentive grammar.

However, the study also demonstrates that the way we currently study this coverage is limiting us in develop a full understanding of the complex nature of traffic crashes. To overcome this, we need to deploy mixed methods and a richer coding scheme that help us to get a better grip of the systemic violence of our contemporary traffic. Minder weergeven

The future of cycling is about to change. At least, this is apparent if we are to believe the multitude of innovators, start-ups, incumbent industries, policy actors and consultants proposing to harness the power of digital techniques to improve and transform cycling experiences, infrastructures, and gadgets. This ‘smartification of cycling’ is a phenomenon that is increasingly attracting attention and a variety of interests, fuelled both by the processes of transitioning to smart mobility and… Meer weergeven

The future of cycling is about to change. At least, this is apparent if we are to believe the multitude of innovators, start-ups, incumbent industries, policy actors and consultants proposing to harness the power of digital techniques to improve and transform cycling experiences, infrastructures, and gadgets. This ‘smartification of cycling’ is a phenomenon that is increasingly attracting attention and a variety of interests, fuelled both by the processes of transitioning to smart mobility and a boom of attention to cycling in cities worldwide. However, proposed cycling futures, both implicit and explicit, receive little critical scrutiny. Here, we fill this gap by mapping smart cycling innovations and their key features. We examine how innovations are believed to change the way cycling is practiced, made sense of and governed. Using a constructivist grounded theory approach, we analyse 86 website texts of smart cycling innovations and systematically outline changes envisioned by innovators. Having identified tensions between and within a range of promised futures, we conclude that smart cycling futures are multiple and contested, just as cycling presents are. Therefore, we propose a number of questions for further research to advance a more nuanced understanding of the range of futures of smart cycling in academic thinking and potentially to support decision-making at different levels of governance. Understanding diverse, contested, embodied and embedded cycling presents is part and parcel of imagining and co-creating (smart) cycling futures. Minder weergeven

Quantity and quality of social relations correlate with our happiness and physical health. Our (feeling of) connectedness also matters for the efficacy and functioning of communities and societies as a whole. Different mobility practices offer different conditions for being exposed to other people and the environment. Such exposure influences a sense of being connected to places, communities and societies. In transport planning practice and research, these relations are slowly getting… Meer weergeven

Quantity and quality of social relations correlate with our happiness and physical health. Our (feeling of) connectedness also matters for the efficacy and functioning of communities and societies as a whole. Different mobility practices offer different conditions for being exposed to other people and the environment. Such exposure influences a sense of being connected to places, communities and societies. In transport planning practice and research, these relations are slowly getting attention. In this paper, we develop an analytical framework that offers a comprehensive understanding on if and how one’s experiences of being on the move influence the ability of an individual to develop a sense of connectedness. We develop hypotheses about these possible relations, that link literatures from mobilities research and sociology to advance transport planning research and practice. First, we discuss how the experiences of being mobile using different transport modes set different stages for the potential exposure to a diversity of socio-spatial environments. Second, we translate this into an analytical framework for understanding the relationships between connectedness and using different mobility modes. In the final part of the paper, we illustrate this by operationalising a number of potential indicators of connectedness (as dependent variables). Minder weergeven

Planning Support Systems (PSS) can provide important and much needed knowledge and support in strategy-making processes, by bringing explicit information to daily planning practices. However, as decades of academic studies show, their use is riddled with barriers and bottlenecks.

Academic studies generated insight in these bottlenecks and identified a number of directions to bridge the implementation gap. Most notably, the transparency, flexibility and interactivity of PSS needed to be… Meer weergeven

Planning Support Systems (PSS) can provide important and much needed knowledge and support in strategy-making processes, by bringing explicit information to daily planning practices. However, as decades of academic studies show, their use is riddled with barriers and bottlenecks.

Academic studies generated insight in these bottlenecks and identified a number of directions to bridge the implementation gap. Most notably, the transparency, flexibility and interactivity of PSS needed to be enhanced to align the instruments more with the dynamic characteristics of urban strategy-making processes.

However, PSS developers do not seek instrumental use only; they seek to increase the quality of planning through this use. Accordingly, academic analysis should go beyond the user-friendliness of the PSS themselves. There are a number of studies that focus on the relations between PSS and planning quality. This paper aims to construct links between these studies of usefulness and the body of knowledge on user-friendliness. To do so, it operationalizes the characteristics of user-friendliness and the potential added value that PSS have on the qualities of planning (specifically the strategy-making phases). Consequently, the relations between these concepts are further explored.

Five experiments measured user-friendliness and usefulness indicators of different PSS and explored the relations between these two concepts. The findings indicate high user-friendliness across the board, while usefulness was only found in very limited cases and for very limited dimensions (notably Insight and Consensus). The correlations between the perceived user-friendliness and usefulness on different planning qualities reveal that for the self-reported Enthusiasm of participants all user-friendliness indicators have a positive effect. For perceived gains in Insight, only Credibility and Clarity of output have a significant positive effect. Minder weergeven

The bicycle is often understood as a disjointed ‘feeder’ mode that provides access to public transport. We argue that combined use of the bicycle and public transport should be understood in a broader perspective, especially where bicycles link to higher speed and higher capacity public transport, such as the train. Cycling and public transport can have a symbiotic relationship forming a hybrid, distinct transport mode, which should be reflected in transport planning. The bicycle is as a way to… Meer weergeven

The bicycle is often understood as a disjointed ‘feeder’ mode that provides access to public transport. We argue that combined use of the bicycle and public transport should be understood in a broader perspective, especially where bicycles link to higher speed and higher capacity public transport, such as the train. Cycling and public transport can have a symbiotic relationship forming a hybrid, distinct transport mode, which should be reflected in transport planning. The bicycle is as a way to soften the rigid nature of public transport and thus accommodate diverse individual travel needs and situations. Public transport can be seen as a means to dramatically extend cycling’s speed and spatial reach. We combine a system perspective with conceptual analysis to explore how, why and when this reconsideration is important. We use the Netherlands as illustrative case because of the relative maturity of its bicycle–train connections. The case shows that the synergy between rather opposite yet highly complementary aspects, high speed of the train, high accessibility of the bicycle and flexibility in combining both sub-modes, are the fundamental characteristics to understand the functioning of this system in a wider spatial context. In our conclusion we propose a research agenda, to further explore the relevance of this system for land-use and transport planning and distil wider implications for the international debate. Minder weergeven

Luchthavens en stedelijke regio’s raken steeds meer met elkaar verweven. Dit brengt bestuurlijke vraagstukken met zich mee. Na het Bestuursforum Schiphol zijn er meerdere overlegstructuren opgezet die de groei van de luchthaven regionaal goed willen afstemmen op de schaarse ruimte. Dit leidt tot een gevoel van bestuurlijke drukte en paradoxaal genoeg ook tot verschraling van de inhoudelijke agenda, gericht op geluidsproblematiek en ruimtelijke ontwikkeling. Met stakeholders is in een serious… Meer weergeven

Luchthavens en stedelijke regio’s raken steeds meer met elkaar verweven. Dit brengt bestuurlijke vraagstukken met zich mee. Na het Bestuursforum Schiphol zijn er meerdere overlegstructuren opgezet die de groei van de luchthaven regionaal goed willen afstemmen op de schaarse ruimte. Dit leidt tot een gevoel van bestuurlijke drukte en paradoxaal genoeg ook tot verschraling van de inhoudelijke agenda, gericht op geluidsproblematiek en ruimtelijke ontwikkeling. Met stakeholders is in een serious game een aantal voorstellen ingebracht om het huidige debat te verrijken. Minder weergeven

Despite the Netherlands’ position as a premier cycling country (mainly due to its high cycling mode share), there is scarce insight into the variations of bicycle use between different spatial and social contexts as well as changes and trends over time. This gap severely limits the understanding of the context-specific aspects of cycling trends and hinders the development of effective policies to promote cycling. In order to fill this gap, this paper explores the spatial and social… Meer weergeven

Despite the Netherlands’ position as a premier cycling country (mainly due to its high cycling mode share), there is scarce insight into the variations of bicycle use between different spatial and social contexts as well as changes and trends over time. This gap severely limits the understanding of the context-specific aspects of cycling trends and hinders the development of effective policies to promote cycling. In order to fill this gap, this paper explores the spatial and social differentiation of cycling patterns and trends in the Netherlands.

First, an overview of the known spatial and social drivers of mobility behaviour in general, and of cycling behaviour in particular, is provided. Next, these insights are used to structure the analysis of data from the Dutch National Travel Survey (NTS). Mobility diaries allowed us to distinguish trends in mobility behaviour across different spatial contexts and social groups.

Our findings revealed three important spatial and social differences in cycling patterns and trends. First, the spatial redistribution of the population towards urban areas (‘re-urbanisation’) has led to increasing aggregated cycling volumes in urban areas, and falling rates in rural areas. Second, the general mode share of cycling is mainly sensitive to changes in the composition of the population, especially elderly persons (higher rates) and immigrants (lower rates). Third, although per capita changes are minor, cycling shares among young adults living in urban areas and elderly baby boomers are growing.

The results emphasize the need for a differentiated approach to promoting cycling and developing policies that can respond to location- and group-specific threats and opportunities. An awareness of these spatial- and social differences is especially important when cycling is used as policy intervention for public health; some groups and places are likely to profit, while others might remain immune. Minder weergeven

- The transport policy domain is seeing a surge of behavioural change campaigns.

- More attention for unintended and undesirable consequences of these are needed.

- Hirschmann triad of futility, perversity and jeopardy can be a useful heuristic for this.

- Financial rewards and gamification are effective but concerns about unintended consequences can be raised.

- Researchers and practitioners need to develop more sensibility for this to counter solutionist tendencies.

The spatial developments around Schiphol Airport have been governed by a joint initiative of local actors for several decades. In this in-depth case study, we use the multi-level perspective from transition studies to draw lessons on the governance of airport regions. Our findings uncovered the rise (1980s–1990s) and the fall (2000s–2010s) of a strong governance structure: the Governance Forum Schiphol (Bestuursforum Schiphol).