Exploring the infrastructural politics and cultures of cycling: The case of Bryggebroen, Copenhagen, Denmark

Description

This paper aims to present initial results of the research project termed Bikeability, which is funded by the Danish Research Council and will look into different aspects of cycling from the overall point of discussing how to increase cycling. The motive for the funding is a combination of health, safety and cultural factors that all are being explored in different partial projects and carried out by research partners from Aalborg University, Copenhagen University and University of South Denmark.
The specific research project related to this particular paper is conducted at Aalborg University and aims at connecting a national quantitative survey of bike infrastructure projects with qualitative and quantitative case studies from four different bike infrastructures in Danish cities. In the project we aim to illustrate the complex interrelationship between the politics of infrastructural hardware (e.g. bike lanes, traffic regulations etc.) and the cultural practices of everyday life cycling exploring what is perceived to be the biking affordances that attracts cyclists.
In this paper the empirical investigations from the infrastructure termed Bryggebroen will be presented. Bryggebroen is a bridge located in the Copenhagen harbour that combines cycle and walkway, it is 190 meters long and 5.5 meters wide, cost 47.6 million Danish Crowns and opened on 2006. The bridge stretches in a light arc from Kalvebod Brygge to Islandsbrygge, creating a short cut for cyclists between two of the most recently developed harbour fronts of central Copenhagen. In order to improve accessibility for soft road-users and enhance urban life in the harbor fronts, the City of Copenhagen implemented Bryggebroen. The paper will have an explorative status at this stage, as the main findings will be provided over the summer of 2010. The research applies a mixed methodology of quantitative traffic counting, qualitative interviews, design studies, ethnographic field work and document analysis.

Period	2010
Held at	Unknown external organisation