Cycle logistics services have re-emerged across Europe in response to urban and environmental challenges and as a sustainable solution for delivering goods. While most studies approach cycle logistics through optimisation and substitution perspectives, this paper offers a critical analysis of how cycle logistics practices navigate tensions between logics of logistical circulation and embodied mobilities. Drawing on interviews with cycle logistics companies and courier services in Malm & ouml; (Sweden), we explore how cycle logistics practices are shaped by bicycles as technology, urban infrastructure, organisational intentions, and embodied labour. Placing our work within the debates concerning critical logistics, mobilities, autonomobility and v & eacute;lomobility, we conceptualise cycle logistics as a site where circulation, embodiment, and socio-technical power relations are negotiated. We show that cycle logistics practices articulate different and sometimes competing logics of efficiency, situated service and autonomy, which shape whether cargo cycling reproduces, adapts, or unsettles dominant automobility and logistical regimes. Ultimately, this paper expands the conceptual boundaries of v & eacute;lomobility by integrating commercial cargo cycling and contributes new insights into the political economy and ontologies of mobilities.
Efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the transport sector in Europe have largely been unsuccessful to date, highlighting the need for new approaches. Drawing on Social Practice Theory, recent research has called for cross-domain analyses of mobility practices to identify more effective leverage points for policy intervention. Responding to these calls, this study analyzes 24 week-long mobility diaries and 26 in-depth interviews with university students in Germany to examine university-related travel as part of broader constellations of commuting, studying, and dwelling practices. It develops a typology of these practices and identifies specific mechanisms through which elements of studying and dwelling - such as campus facilities, vibrant campus life, and the symbolic value of student independence - intersect with commuting. By tracing these links, the study shows how systems of interlocking practices emerge that shape travel demand in higher education and vary significantly in their openness to sustainability transitions. While the interdependence of mobility, studying, and dwelling is well known, this study is among the first to offer a systematic, empirically grounded analysis of practice systems through a Social Practice Theory lens. Crucially, it argues that by leveraging linking elements at the intersections of practices, targeted policy measures could generate ripple effects across systems of practices that extend across different sectors and domains of everyday life - rather than addressing commuting practices in isolation. This integrated framework advances practice-theoretical mobility research and can inform future efforts to foster sustainable commuting and broader sustainability transitions.
This article examines the lived mobility experiences of residents of two favelas in Brazil: Favela Santa Marta, Rio de Janeiro and Vila Tronco, Porto Alegre. Specifically, we discuss the significance of mobility and the everyday challenges for seldom-heard communities when moving around their neighbourhoods. We also outline the value of remote photo-elicitation interviews for investigating daily mobility experiences. We draw on the experience of conducting research during the coronavirus pandemic when lockdown measures and public health restrictions were in place. The everyday mobility experiences in this study demonstrate the entanglements of power, racism and social and spatial exclusion affecting the materiality and immateriality of mobility. This paper contributes to discussions on the social, cultural and environmental aspects of mobility and highlights the need to adopt proactive knowledge production that opens opportunities for local perspectives on the lived experience of mobility.
Public transport is seen as a key player in the green transition of the transport sector in the Global North. The bus is primarily associated with positive values, reflecting a lifestyle and choice-centred sustainability discourse. The paper argues that the bus system can be thought of as an affective economy of "goodness" that stands in great contrast with bus-dependent lived experience of bus mobilities, in particular people living in marginalized urban areas. Qualitative interviews with young and adult bus riders living in disadvantaged urban neighbourhoods are contrasted with an analysis of regional transport plans to reveal discrepancies between the envisioned ideal future users and the current collective of bus users. The paper outlines how bus-dependent groups negotiate their own everyday bus experiences, and the affective economy of stigma related to their neighbourhoods, with public discourses on bus mobilities as normatively good. The article highlights the need to acknowledge how affect works in relation to public transport and the green transition, and points to the need to critically engage with questions of equality and justice in policy making and planning practices in the context of public transport.
This article investigates emergent spatial relations in Quito, Ecuador, during the COVID-19 pandemic, with particular attention to cycling lanes. It explores how fear is produced when disruptive events, such as COVID-19, have unintended consequences in urban public spaces. As the pandemic immobilized cities, cycling lanes became a healthy way for municipal governments to enforce social distancing while encouraging residents to move around. Cycling lanes implemented during the pandemic slowed the pace of modern urban life and reduced certain risks, like contracting the virus. Yet cycling lanes also introduced new risks, exacerbating prior vulnerabilities that become evident through the study of the feminized body while cycling. To study this interrelated dynamic, the article draws on embodied cycling experiences gathered by following 10 feminized cyclists during the pandemic, from 2020 to 2021. It employs a participatory photo-diary method adapted to pandemic restrictions via WhatsApp and argues that disruptive events such as COVID-19 are experienced at the spatial unit of the body, where fear and vulnerability emerge as emotional topographies of crisis. As these emotional landscapes unfold, I analyze the feminized cyclist through the lens of cuerpo-territorio, demonstrating how disruptive events can invert fear into collective, caring political responses. Ultimately, by attending to interdependent dynamics in a mobile society, the article contributes to research on cycling and pandemic mobilities by elucidating the role of politicized events in producing fear in urban public space.
This paper examines the governance of public transport - shared taxis and autorickshaws - in two small Indian cities, Dehradun and Shillong, through the concept of vernacular governance. Vernacular governance denotes locally embedded mechanisms of regulation and organisation that emerge alongside or in the gaps of formal state structures and are tailored to specific socio-political and spatial contexts. These vehicles have operated in the cities for decades despite repeated legal rulings and official decrees declaring their operations 'illegal'. The paper analyses the governance strategies devised by the operators, which exhibit parallels with other transport systems in the Global South while also incorporating distinctive local characteristics. Operationalising vernacular governance through rationalities, technologies, actors, and processes, the paper shows how these governance practices have become a source of power for transport operators, enabling their continued dominance in the cities' public transport landscape. Consequently, these mechanisms have also resisted national government initiatives to formalise urban transport.
The objective of this article is to address mobility as a crucial element in enabling transport workers to influence the politics of public transport in Uganda. It examines how the mobile capabilities of informal motorcycle taxi drivers empower them to withstand formalization and expulsion attempts by state institutions. Considering the specific conditions of informal transport in Uganda, the article identifies four mobility-driven strategies through which the so-called "Boda-Boda" riders actively or passively influence the politics of informal public transport. By using strategies such as protests, evasions, self-organization and political embeddedness, they advocate for their professional interests and protect their informality. For these strategies, Boda-Boda riders rely on their motorcycle-powered mobility to either confront the state or evade it if necessary. While remaining outside the law Boda-Bodas do cooperate with various state institutions and often lend their mobility to political actors. In the process, they have become indispensable elements of the political and economic systems of the country. Contrary to some depictions of informal transporters as mere recipients of urban planning, the article thus advocates for considering them as active and influential participants within policymaking processes.
The ability to cycle on roads shared with motor traffic - or "vehicular cycling" - is a basic competence in countries with low rates of cycling. Through electric pedal assistance, e-bikes can reduce the physical demands of vehicular cycling. With their larger size and capacity to carry multiple children, e-cargo bikes may likewise change how vehicular cycling is experienced and practiced. In this paper, we present an analysis of vehicular cycling in Ireland with the e-cargo bike, focusing on the interview accounts of participants based in four major Irish cities: Dublin, Belfast, Galway, and Cork. We found that most participants felt more respected by motorists, more secure, more powerful, and more entitled as road users when e-cargo cycling. The materials of the e-cargo bike on the road appeared to subvert the established meanings of the bicycle and the cyclist, challenging the hegemony of the private car as the dominant "vehicle" of public space and as the quintessential "family" transport mode. Our unique analysis of e-cargo v & eacute;lomobility in the spaces of automobility shows how the materiality of the e-cargo bike on the road can help to question dominant meanings of cycling in a car-centric society.
While transport infrastructures have received scholarly attention as markers of aspiration and world-classness, their role in reordering the urban space has received scant attention. Transport spaces are important intermediary places, acting as potent venues for production and day-to-day consumption of urbanity. The sensorially intense atmospheres afforded by transport infrastructures present numerous opportunities for the intermingling of mobile bodies while challenging the status quo. Through a combination of design decisions and regulatory interventions, planners shape the production of atmospheres orienting transit users to a redefined, rarefied public ethic. Attending to the growing interest in public transport as a contentious public space, we deploy ethnographic tools of participant observation, conversations and interviews to interrogate the Kochi metrorail project in India while analysing the material and nonmaterial aspects of the system. Through an analysis of spatial practices in metrorail spaces, viewed through the lens of infrastructural citizenship and reinforced by project imagery and messaging, we chart the reconfiguration of the model passenger within the broader framework of metrorail exceptionalism. We argue that fostering citizenship and sustainability using public transport entails minimizing access barriers, embedding metrorail within urban socio-political contexts, and enabling the continuity of informal street practices across metrorail spaces.
The issue of women's safety in public transport remains a formidable urban challenge, with surveillance often taking a center stage in the discourse around solutions. Engaging with these debates, we argue in this article that gendered surveillance in Karachi buses and Delhi metro contributes to polarizing perceptions of these modes of transport in popular imagination, which then get instrumentalized to shape urban mobility according to the desires of the dominant groups. In Karachi, the gendered surveillance of women through gaze stigmatizes the bus as a dangerous space for women, which makes its neglect, underfunding, and slow death broadly acceptable, despite its many benefits. In Delhi, the gendered surveillance for women through CCTV cameras presents the metro as a world-class solution for women's safety, which should be defended and expanded, irrespective of its numerous flaws. We claim this narrow focus on women's safety from bodily harm and the weaponization of the stigma/world-class perceptions undermines the mobility of working-class people and other marginalized groups who, in Karachi, have to commute in a rundown system and in Delhi are economically and socially excluded from the system. Taking seriously the power of competing perceptions in citymaking, we propose the need to center the experiences and desires of all those who use and need public transport the most.
Sleeping while driving is a cognitive-based distracted driving caused by tiredness and drowsiness. The public considers sleeping while driving a dangerous act due to the driver's inability to control the vehicle. In recent years, the advancement of technology has resulted in vehicles with different levels of autonomy that can perform various activities such as steering, changing lanes, braking and stopping. Such situations cause the drivers to have fewer driving activities and make them more likely to fall asleep. This study explored the public sentiments on incidents involving drivers falling asleep in autopilot-enabled vehicles. The study applied text mining on 14,954 comments from seven YouTube videos posted between 2016 and 2021. It was found that the public showed more positive than negative reactions, trust than fear and relatively higher anticipation sentiments on the drivers sleeping in vehicles with autopilot-enabled mode. The public used various keywords such as safe, fully automated, trust, good, lane change and cruise control to indicate their trust in the autopilot mode. The public comments showed their understanding of the law that requires the driver's hands to be on the steering wheel when the vehicle is in autopilot mode. Furthermore, a significant number of comments pointed toward fear, mentioning the likelihood of crashes and the legality of the act. The public, however, fails to differentiate between autopilot and automated mode. These findings highlight the potential need for changes in laws and regulations to align with public expectations as the adoption of automated vehicles continues to grow.
Globally, Australia is known for rapidly reaching a high level of internationalisation in higher education. During Covid-19, the number of international students dropped considerably, leading to catastrophic losses to Australian universities and society. Combined with the crisis management issues and geopolitical conflicts, Australian higher education is at a crossroads. This study acknowledges the need to reflect, re- examine, and re-direct international education development. Using longitudinal data, it identifies changes and depicts contemporary trends in international students in Australia. It highlights the mismatch between higher education development and the demand of the labour market in developing countries that leads to investment in Australian education products. As traditional international students' source countries develop, the demand for Australian education will change accordingly. Additionally, it is critical to foster customer entities from emerging economic countries, who might become the major source countries for Australia's international education in the foreseeable future.
This article explores the concept of temporal scenery in urban environments to understand specific urban rhythms through population mobility in selected parts of the city. The spatial configuration of intersecting temporalities can, upon deeper analysis, identify spatial or temporal attributes, or a certain affiliation to a specific spatio-temporal system. This article therefore provides a theoretical basis for concepts of urban rhythms and other empirical analyses of spatial data and interactions. The data from the census of public transport passengers in the area of Olomouc in the Czech Republic have been analysed. The visible existence of differences in the use of transport on weekdays and during weekends has been confirmed. In the empirical part of the work, specific urban rhythms were identified based on temporal and spatial conditionality. The specific features of selected parts of the city, such as the fragmented area of the University Hospital and the shopping mall on the periphery of the city, which are operated by separate public transport lines and differ in the course of the daily rhythm of the population's mobility curve, are further analysed in depth with a view to identify the possible causes of this difference.
Through the case study of women's experiences after the introduction of a modern light rail system in Tampere, Finland, this article examines the relation between technological development and gendered mobility within urban public transport systems. Using travel diaries and interviews, we find that the experiences of women using the tram reveal a discrepancy between the official "smart city mobility" discourse and the materiality and sociality of lived realities. We frame our findings as part of a fundamental conflict between technological acceleration to sustain economic growth and key elements of human experience, such as reliability, slowness, and social interaction. This conflict extends far beyond the realm of gendered mobilities, posing a challenge to the overall welfare and future of humanity. Our research points toward the need for more interdisciplinary mobilities research that could shed light on the general mechanisms underpinning the unsustainability of current human mobility systems.
Inconventional planning practice, transit spaces such as bus stations and bus stops tend to be designed as generic technical fixtures. Little consideration is paid to various waiting practices, the different ways transit passengers interact with the material and social structures at the bus stop and its surrounding, and the potential of transit spaces to serve as urban public spaces. From an assemblage perspective, this study proposes to see the bus stop not as a ready-made product, but as a process through which a transit assemblageis produced through a range of waiting practices involving both human (transit passengers) and non-human actors (material artifacts) at the bus stop location. Based on a close observation study of selected bus stops in Malm & ouml; and a small survey of user opinions of Malm & ouml;'s bus stops, this paper investigates the processes by which a transit assemblage came into being and is maintained. The paper elaborates on how waiting activities are supported by various transit assemblages that are produced through interactions between users and artifacts at the bus stop location involving not only the assigned bus stop facilities but also the surrounding physical and social infrastructure. It highlights the components and processes that constitute and produce stabilized transit assemblages that have the capacity to support a variety of waiting practices by heterogeneous groups of people. The paper emphasizes the quality of emergence and heterogeneity of transit spaces and argues that it is these qualities that enable them to serve as public spaces.
Active travel, encompassing walking and cycling, is crucial for sustainable urban transportation, offering environmentally friendly commuting options. It benefits the Indian population by reducing air pollution, easing traffic congestion, improving accessibility, and promoting physical activity. This study focuses on informing active travel policymaking in India by examining how the built environment influences travel behavior. Using data from the 2013 activity-travel diary survey in the Greater Mumbai region, the study employs Poisson Regression and Cox proportional hazards models. These models analyze the impact of the built environment on the frequency and duration of daily walking and cycling trips on both weekdays and weekends. Poisson Regression is suitable for discrete count outcomes, while the Cox proportional hazards model assesses walking duration while considering data censoring. Analyzing these models helps policymakers understand the factors influencing walking and cycling duration and frequency. This understanding supports the design of targeted interventions that promote active commuting, increase walking and cycling, and enhance physical activity. The findings reveal that walkability, population density, socio-demographic characteristics, and vehicle ownership influence active travel behavior differently for various trip purposes. This underscores the need for tailored policies and interventions that address the specific requirements of different population segments, promoting active commuting and physical activity in low and middle-income countries like India. Implementing such measures facilitates a shift towards sustainable transportation and fosters healthier, more accessible urban environments.
The aim of this article is to illustrate how mobility disruptions during the COVID-19 pandemic led to a reconfiguration of regulatory, migration and socio-material infrastructures. We share insights about the relationship between (im)mobile lives and infrastructural change by focusing on digital nomads (a group of location-independent workers from predominantly affluent countries working in locations with lower living costs), and coworking spaces in Aotearoa New Zealand (shared workspaces that provide socio-material and technological infrastructure for mobile workers to work from). Destinations that rely on international tourism experienced a devastating loss in foreign arrivals during the COVID-19 pandemic, of which digital nomads form a significant group of. Changes in regulatory infrastructures such as nation state-specific border controls, lockdowns and suspensions on visas, temporarily disrupted commercial and social infrastructures that usually facilitate location-independence. We address these changes through a discussion of findings from 12 semi-structured online interviews with international digital nomads and 11 semi-structured interviews with coworking space managers in Aotearoa New Zealand. Interviews reveal how the pandemic has not only accelerated the shift towards the normalisation of remote work, but also highlight the emergent infrastructures of repair, shedding light on the importance of place, mobilities, materiality, and embodiment in the constitution of location-independence.
