Creating Sustainable Cities Through Cycling Infrastructure? Learning from Insurgent Mobilities

sustainability Article Creating Sustainable Cities through Cycling Infrastructure? Learning from Insurgent Mobilities Aryana Soliz Department of Sociology & Anthropology, Concordia University, Montreal, QC H3G 1M8, Canada; [email protected] Abstract: As policy makers grapple with rapid motorization processes, cycling facilities are gaining new urgency, offering non-polluting and affordable alternatives to automobility. At the same time, urban sustainability paradigms tend to focus on purely technical solutions to transportation challenges, leaving questions of history and social power aside. Drawing from ethnographic fieldwork in Aguascalientes Mexico, this article contributes to the transportation and mobility justice literature by focusing on the work of social movements in confronting a variety of challenges in the provision of active-transportation services. First, this research explores how social movements express and nego- tiate transportation-justice concerns to government and planning authorities. Next, I build on the concept of insurgent citizenship to highlight the processes through which residents contest ongoing injustices and formulate alternatives for building inclusive cities. From the creation of makeshift cycling lanes in underserved urban areas to the search for socially just alternative to policing, social movements are forging new pathways to re-envision sustainable transportation systems. These insurgent forms of citymaking—understood here as insurgent mobilities—underscore the creative role of citizens in producing the city as well as the enormous amount of care work involved in these processes. Citation: Soliz, A. Creating Keywords: cycling; social movements; mobility justice; ethnography; insurgent citizenship; sustain- Sustainable Cities through Cycling able transportation; Mexico Infrastructure? Learning from Insurgent Mobilities. Sustainability 2021, 13, 8680. https://doi.org/ 10.3390/su13168680 1. Introduction Academic Editor: Tan Yigitcanlar In March 2018, I joined a group of bicycle advocates in Aguascalientes, Mexico in an impromptu meeting regarding a series of lighting disappearances on one of the city’s Received: 1 June 2021 principal cycling facilities: Ciclovía Gómez Morín (Figures1 and2)—a bicycle–pedestrian Accepted: 22 July 2021 path on the outer-eastern edge of the city center. We had just attended a celebration Published: 4 August 2021 organized by the municipal government for the planned expansion of this path; however, the ongoing blackouts raised new concerns for activists, ranging from visibility to personal Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral security. I remember standing together under the streetlamp’s darkness for some time, with regard to jurisdictional claims in trying to make sense of how the lights’ solar-chargers, and at times the entire poles, had published maps and institutional affil- been taken mysteriously at night. Rafael, a long-time bicyclist in the city, discussed a iations. particularly devasting mugging that he experienced on this facility at night, which left him seriously injured and bikeless for several months. Araceli, a leader in the bicycle movement, reminded us that these issues have been particularly challenging for women commuters amidst a rising crisis of gender-based violence: “We have to worry about who Copyright: © 2021 by the author. might be lurking in the bushes,” she explained, so “sometimes I’d rather take the risk and Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. ride out in the street with the cars instead of riding on the dark path.” I also remember how This article is an open access article fear crept around us as twilight loomed, leading our discussion to an abrupt end. distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). Sustainability 2021, 13, 8680. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13168680 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability SustainabilitySustainability2021 2021, ,13 13,, 8680 x FOR PEER REVIEW 22 of 2122 FigureFigure 1.1. Missing solar charger for light, Ciclovía* Ciclovía* Gómez Gómez Morín. Morín. Photo Photo provided provided by by the the author. author. * *In In Mexico Mexico (and (and in in this this paper), paper), the the term term ciclovíaciclov isía usedis used to refer to refer broadly broadly to a variety to a variety of bicycle of bicycle infrastructure, including cycling lanes, bicycle–pedestrian paths, and shareways. This term is used dif- infrastructure, including cycling lanes, bicycle–pedestrian paths, and shareways. This term is used ferently in other areas of Latin America, such as Colombia, where a ciclovía refers more specifically Sustainability 2021, 13, x FOR PEER REVIEWdifferently in other areas of Latin America, such as Colombia, where a ciclovía refers more specifically3 of 22 to a car-free day (which is generally called a paseo dominical in Mexico). to a car-free day (which is generally called a paseo dominical in Mexico). As we hurried away from the development that evening, questions about the infrastructure’s sustainability lingered. While the path was developed as a primary route within the city’s active-transportation network (Figure 2b), the ongoing raids of its solar- powered lighting as well as the muggings that many active commuters have experienced have contributed to a widespread avoidance of this facility at night. Yet for activists such as Araceli and Rafael, these problems extend far beyond a few broken lights, requiring attention to a broad spectrum of social justice concerns. How can these social movement actors help to inform our understanding of sustainable transportation development, including the more precarious aspects of bicycle travel? (a) (b) FigureFigure 2. 2. (a(a) )Map Map of of Ciclovía Ciclovía Gómez Gómez Morín, Morín, as as of of February February 2021. 2021. (b (b) )Aguascalientes’ Aguascalientes’ expanded expanded “yo “yo voy” voy” cycling cycling network network asas of of February February 2021. 2021. According According to to the the st stateate government, government, the the network network now now encompasses encompasses over over 100 100 km km of of cycling cycling facilities; facilities; however,however, it it remains remains highly highly fragmented. fragmented. Images Images provided provided by: by: CoordinaciónCoordinación General General de de Movilidad Movilidad,, Aguascalientes. Aguascalientes. SustainableAs we hurried transportation away from theis broadly development understood that evening, as networks questions intended about to the support infras- mobilitiestructure’s that sustainability are environmentally lingered. While responsible, the path economically was developed viable, as a primaryand socially route just within [1]. Cycling has been defined as one—if not the most—sustainable urban transport mode given its feasibility for shorter and medium-distance trips that are too long to cover on foot [2,3]. Building on speculative theorizing on post-car futures [4], recent scholarship has emphasized the power of bicycle-utopian thinking in the transition to more sustainable urban futures [5,6]. Thus, sustainable cycling infrastructure can be understood as both solid material forms intended to facilitate bicycle travel and prominent imaginary con- structs where expectations about environmental futures are played out. Yet beyond the immediate physical implementation of cycling infrastructure, and beyond the environmental imaginaries unfurled in this process, the case of Ciclovía Morín points to the need for a careful assessment of the vulnerabilities that can characterize cycling facilities and the work of local communities in contending with these instabilities. Questions on infrastructural deficits have been gaining momentum in the social, pub- lic health, and engineering sciences [7,8]. Blackouts, breakages, and other shortfalls have surfaced infrastructure in unexpected ways—producing a type of infrastructural inver- sion [9] that highlights socio-material arrangements that often remain submerged, un-no- ticed, or neglected [10,11]. Deterioration accentuates how social exclusions are refracted through uneven access to infrastructural provision and maintenance [12,13]. In many Latin American cities, persistent infrastructural breakdown has become the norm as residents contend with constant deferrals and have to improvise in order to obtain the re- sources and transport necessary for daily life [14–16]. The pilfering of Ciclovía Morín’s lighting, and the frequent nocturnal robberies that have ensued, is one example of infrastructural violence—a concept that underscores the ways that broad social inequities become operational through urban infrastructure [17]. From this perspective, the crisis of urban violence currently threatening Aguascalientes’ cycling facilities does not occur in a vacuum. Rather, it needs to be understood in relation to longstanding mobility injustices, including those relating to police brutality and other forms of systemic oppression. Theoriz- ing on transportation resourcefulness [18] and grassroots knowledge [19] further help to counter dystopic characterizations of infrastructural degradation in resource-poor Sustainability 2021, 13, 8680 3 of 21 the city’s active-transportation network (Figure2b), the ongoing raids of its solar-powered lighting as well as the muggings that many active commuters have experienced have contributed to a widespread avoidance of this facility at night. Yet for activists such as Araceli

Load more