Task 4.3

Bicycle Urbanism

Florian Lorenz is an ecological designer. He has a strong interest in transportation and prime focus on urban cycling. He has been the head of research at Smarter Than Car (STC).

His idea mainly focuses on building a city for bicycles. Planning has to adapt to mobility, private vehicles are dominating the roads. People are finding markets in mobility in urban cities. Biofuels compared to conventional fuels, bicycles compared to other transportation. Last 30 years we used non-renewable energy, but with growing population, limited resources are forcing us into switching to renewable energy.
A layout of city has to change to be sustainable, to adapt to the usage of resources.
Florian went to China to study how bicycles can be a mean of a transport. However he realised that the once hailed "Bicycle Kingdom" is eroding and more and more people are getting cars. He studied how people cycle, and why the bicycle culture is eroding so fast. Bicycles there were used not only as a mean of transport but also used as shops, delivery, crafts and services, in a spontaneous and adaptive way to the city. It provided the people to make a living in their city. In 1980s, 58% of trips are in bicycle.

Diagram of traffic flow in a local city and Beijing

In contrast to other countries, Beijing has hose traffic might be chaotic, but it shows validity to the place, more freedom to move around, increasing mobility. More direct ways are more efficient. Urban cycling decreases carbon footprints. Bicycle not only is a mean f transport but also becomes a trend. Valuable approach for cities, challenges against high demands for transport, traffic congestion.