For the past twenty years, cycling has been rising in European cities. Even though it was a common mode of transportation in the first half of the 20th century, its use dropped dramatically after World War 2. The rise of car use, urban sprawl and greater travel distances contributed to the drop in urban cycling levels. The growing popularity of the sustainable mobility paradigm and the concept of proximity enhanced the construction of cycling as a public policy object.
This thesis explores on the conditions of the “cycling return” in European cities. We focus on how cycling policies influence on cycling practices. I mobilize theoretical frameworks from practice theories and political science to analyze how cycling is integrated in the urban mobility system. I focus on the three main elements of the practice theories to analyze cycling: meanings, artefacts, skills.
I use comparison to enlighten the context effects in the production of policies and the development of practices. This thesis is based on two case studies: Greater Lyon metropolis (France) and Hamburg (Germany). I conducted semi-directive interviews with public actors and cyclists in both cities.
The thesis shows that the spatial organization plays a great role in the production of public actors’ meanings of cycling, which will influence the tools used in cycling policies. It will also help shaping cycling practices.
Biography, career
Manon Eskenazi joined the LVMT in February 2020 to work on the SAM project in which she explores the governance of automated vehicles trials, and the business models of scaled-up automated mobility services. Her current research focuses on the governance of sociotechnical transitions and innovations in multiple study cases in France: Paris region, Montpellier, Rouen and Rennes. She is also in charge of the scientific coordination of the Meta-Observatory of Mobilities.
Since joining the LVMT, she worked on various research projects, including Velotactique on the impacts of COVID-19 on cycling policies in Ile-de-France and MaaS as a regulation tool on the governance of MaaS platforms & mobility hubs in Hamburg.
She holds a doctorate in Urban Planning from Paris-Est University (2022), which explored the interactions between the implementation of cycling policies and the development of practices in two European metropolis, Greater Lyon (France) and Hamburg (Germany). She was trained in Policy Science at University Paris 8 (bachelor) and Urban Planning at the Urban Planning School (Master degree).