Urban cycling mobility: management and urban institutional arrangements to support bicycle tourism activities—case study from Curitiba, Brazil

Abstract

Simultaneously addressing micro-mobility and urban tourism has been a challenge for urban managers formulating cycle-inclusive urban policies in different countries. In this context, we investigate how municipal public agencies have historically planned with regard to cycling as a mode of transport in the urban mobility system in Curitiba, Brazil, and how they currently associate the city’s cycle-inclusive and cycle tourism activities. This research is qualitative and based on documentary evidence and interviews with managers of municipal agencies. The results indicate that Curitiba’s cycling infrastructure is underused compared to other Latin American cities, cyclists still face high traffic risk, planning policies place greater emphasis on technical bicycle projects than cyclist safety, innovations in cycling policy emerge from urban management systems and societal urban governance, and relations between public agencies are more operational and bureaucratic than strategic in strengthening leisure-cycle and urban cycle tourism activities. We conclude that the development of public policies to support these cycle-related activities has been valued in different contexts, but still does not seem to be a priority in Curitiba.