The Bicycle and the Arctic – Resilient and Sustainable Transport in Times of Climate Change

Abstract

In Alaska, alternative transport modes to cars and other motorized, petrol powered vehicles are gaining in importance due to increasing urbanization and as adaptive responses to risks of infrastructural damage to transportation networks in facing the climate change. Bicycling functions as a transportation practice in response to increasing infrastructure disruptions, offering a strategy towards sustainable and resilient means of transportation in the times of global climate change and its associated challenges. Changing weather conditions and demographic changes lead to the necessity to establish more adapted infrastructures. The use of the bicycle hereby offers a suitable mode of transport in Arctic and Subarctic areas. New technologies such as fat bikes make bicycling throughout the winter season possible. The combination of the theoretical concepts of sustainability and resilience bears the potential to foster concrete solutions and action strategies for policy makers with respect to infrastructural challenges in the Arctic.