Chapter 10 - Trends in active and sustainable mobility: experiences from emerging cycling territories of Dhaka and Innsbruck

Abstract

Increasingly cycling is being adopted as one of the most sustainable and healthy transport options in many countries. It has emerged as a popular urban transport mode in Bangladesh, especially in the nation's capital – Dhaka. Due to its infamous traffic congestion, Dhaka loses 3.2 million working hours daily. To avoid the exhaustion with infinite waiting hours amidst congestion and considering the fast and flexible route choices with bicycle, mostly young professionals and students are embracing it as their main mode of transport. However, inadequate infrastructure, lack of respect from other modes, fear of collision in mixed traffic, social influence as well as gender differences in cycling are some of the barriers, preventing more cyclists on the road. Somewhat inquisitively Innsbruck has also experienced a significant rise in bicycle use (13%–23%) with a high share of young cyclists since 2002 in a drastically different geocultural setting. Keeping the differences in mobility patterns, infrastructural conditions and culture in mind, in this chapter, we present experiences of the practice and attitudes towards cycling and the underlying effects on the frequency of cycling using two detailed surveys on cycling behaviour from both the cities. We argue that while archetypical research on cycling is centered around successful cycling cities, analyzing the paths in emerging territories would provide an enriching perspective. Moreover, comparable contexts are often presented in literature experiences from seemingly contrasting contexts with similar trends providing useful insights of overcoming barriers and fostering innovation. To that end, we scrutinize the motivating factors inducing increased bicycle use as well as the barriers in cycling and point out the plausible strategies and policy recommendations for further promotion of cycling in cities.