Abstract
This article asks how cycling, a sustainable form of urban mobility, is discussed in the context of smart cities and the Internet of Things in European Commission (EC) policy documents, and how this compares to discussions around cars. Sustainable forms of transport, such as cycling, are a key issue for cities across the globe, including smart cities, while transport is increasingly becoming part of the Internet of Things (IoT). This article contributes to an understanding of how cars and bicycles are discussed in this context. To do so, 39 relevant EC policy documents (2014–2018) were identified and examined through keyword searches and rigorous document analysis. The results show how the vast majority of policy discussions in this area revolve around cars (including autonomous cars and smart vehicles), while cycling is hardly considered, with a strong affinity between IoT and cars. In addition, recent EC policy debates take place more around IoT than around Smart Cities, while sustainability is not considered much in the IoT context. The conclusion highlights the implications of sustainable urban modes of transport such as cycling being absent from IoT/smart debates, including lack of policy visibility and funding opportunities, underlining the significance of this research, and it also makes policy suggestions for addressing these issues and for future research.
Highlights
Sustainable forms of transport are a key issue for cities across the globe, including smart cities
This article focusses on analyzing policy documents that are published on the European Commission’s website and that are relevant for Transport and Mobility and Internet of Things (IoT) in Smart Cities, with a particular focus on cycling and cars
The second example is, how under the heading “EU Policy Context”, the documents explains: “the EU Commission launched the AIOTI15 Alliance in 2015, in order to enhance the dialogue between actors of the Internet of Things (IoT)” and that one “AIOTI workgroup is dedicated to Smart Mobility, which includes IoT use cases pertaining to the car industry” [29] (p. 10). This quote shows how smart mobility is equated with the automotive industry in the document, and how cars are the most prominent example of IoT given around transport—both patterns are found in many of the other documents analyzed
Summary
Sustainable forms of transport are a key issue for cities across the globe, including smart cities. Cycling is an important element of sustainable and urban transport. Transport plays a major role as part of the increasing number of objects that are connected and online—often referred to as the Internet of Things (IoT). Only those modes of transport/mobility that are smart/intelligent/networked and engage with data are ‘visible’ in the socio-economic context—and this tends to be discussions of smart and autonomous cars for the most part. This provides new challenges for sustainable modes of transport such as cycling, and their visibility in the policy context, underlining the significance of this research
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