ARCC Feeling good in public spaces dialogue series: Visual spectacle and tactile texture of urban places LDA Design London | 29 Feb 2016 Dr Ben Spencer | Oxford Brookes University

Delightful cycling for all? The potential of enhanced sensory experience to encourage cycling

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A study to understand cycling among the older population in the UK and how this affects independence, health and wellbeing

Develop a better understanding of how the design of our towns and cities, and bicycle technology, is shaping older people's experience of cycling

Create a toolkit for policy makers and practitioners to support and promote older cycling

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Mixed methods

approach

Scoping secondary

data sources

Life history interviews

Mobile methods |

Micro-ethno-graphy

(E)Cycling &

Wellbeing Trial

International study

visits

Policy review

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Dreaming spires - Screaming tyres?

Understanding older people's experience of cycling

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Interest in the situatedness and contextual nature of the lived experience. Difficulties and delights of riding within urban contexts in the UK. Go-along-shadowing then talking through practices as they happen. See what they do & see what they say they do.

Participant chosen route - ride observation

Researcher Binaural microphones inside windjammers Forward-facing action camera

Participant Forward / backward facing action camera GPS

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Post-ride Video Elicitation Interview

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Strategies and tactics: •  route choice •  road position •  manoeuvres •  transgressions •  infrastructure •  environment Experience of route: •  sensory •  affective •  social Wider experience

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Sean | 8.5 km | 5 pm | 30 mins | 18 kmh

Journey home from work: City to suburbs City centre Arterial road Ring-road cycle track Residential neighbourhood 50s Ride15 years ‘Steady & skilled’

Sean

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Sean

Detailed knowledge of (tactile) route

Route choices and manoeuvres

Attentiveness versus ‘vegging out’

‘Stress busting’: reflect on the day

Visual spectacle: ‘A bit of a tourist still’

Sociality: ‘Cycle Socializing’

Personal safety ‘bottles and bricks’ –

lighting & foliage

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Desiree | 3.2 km | 2.30 pm | 18 mins | 11 kmh

Circular shopping journey from home: City centre Market stop 70s Ride 12 years ‘Slow & skilled’

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Desiree

Surfaces: ‘pot hole there, manhole cover which is very tricky... you learn not to go over it or you get a terrible bounce... lots of places like that in Oxford’ Later… P: road resurfaced last year... terrible before, very, very, bumpy R: so what difference does that make to you as a cyclist? P: you feel safer... if the surface is very poor... [if not] you just feel much more secure on your bike... you know you are not going to take a tumble unexpectedly or that, one of the nightmares is that you are going to go into a pothole and fall off your bike... R: ...to do with the predictability of what is there? P: you just know you are going to be fine... whereas otherwise your attention is distracted by watching potholes and the smoother bits which you can go on AND trying to be aware of the traffic, so you can't deal with two quite serious potential hazards. If the path is not good it just adds to your vulnerability and your potential dangers P: I am exceptionally aware... all around... 180 degrees... trying to predict what could go wrong and try and avoid it

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Desiree

Awareness – skills – confidence: ‘you take in a huge amount of information as you cycle... you have got to have eyes in the back of your head and sideways... and if you don't you are putting yourself at some risk it is just very fine tuning of all your senses, really important, especially for older cyclists... I have got everything switched on, as much as when I'm driving, in fact probably more because when you are driving you are protected by the car... and here it is just you, that is why you have got to have real cycling skills... if you haven't got that or you haven't developed it you won't cycle as you get older... it is all very well to say 'just get on your bike' but you can't... you have got to feel confident, you have got to feel it is instinctive... that you could manage any situation. I don't know how you'd develop that... you know my cycling history, years and years of it…. its fear as well isn't it, nervousness, hardly any of my friends cycle...

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Sheryl | 9.1 km | Mid-day | 30 mins | 18 kmh

Out and back, shopping / personal business journey from home: Suburbs Hill Cycle track Local centre 50s Ride 16 years ‘Steady & skilled’

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Sheryl

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Sheryl

•  Potholes – ‘that has improved they have repaired lots of it, it really did used to be quite [sucks teeth] exciting, difficult if it was wet, you couldn't tell once it had started to puddle, you had no idea how deep it is’

•  Ironwork – ‘if I have got the choice, the luxury, I will go round rather than over... choice in terms of traffic’

•  Off-road track and underpass: •  Mural – ‘I love their paintwork’ •  Blocked drains – ‘the drains at the bottom block and you have no idea

until you turn the corner’

•  Headlight glare on cycle track by dual carriageways: ‘too wearing… glare... noisier… feel slightly more battered, sensory overload!’

•  Balance problems - dislike of stopping / starting / wobbling

Conclusions

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Ageing: population and (much) infrastructure

‘Feel it’: when cycling v car - screaming tyres

‘Fear it’: falling, skidding, wobbling, colliding

Resilient riders: skill, experience and confidence to reap rewards

Surface: quality and reliability vital

Confidence: in surface and safety from (larger/faster) vehicles

required before appreciation of wider physical/social environment

possible

Spectacle of Oxford: limited opportunities to appreciate

Challenges: - for new / returning cyclists - ‘affective capacity’

- maintaining / improving infrastructure with climate

change – extreme weather events

Implications

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Safe – and perceived to be safe •  Safe and well-maintained routes (surface, foliage,

debris), cycle-specific and on-road •  Prioritise maintenance of cycle tracks and 2m nearest to

kerb on roads •  Lighting and overlooking

Comfortable •  Good quality surfaces: smooth, consistent (roots!

ironwork!), high-grip, water drainage, little vertical deflection

•  Routes that flow: lack of interruptions, intuitive, legible •  Forgiving infrastructure (we make mistakes) – low traffic

speeds / separation

•  Footrests, low gradients •  Designed for growing numbers and abilities of cyclists

Attractive •  Designed for social interaction - space, speed,

separation from traffic

•  Contribution to placemaking –, interest, greening

References: Sustrans Design Manual (2014) TfL London Cycling Design Standards (2014) Cycling Embassy of Great Britain Design Principles for Mass Cycling (2016)

Thank you! bspencer@brookes.ac.uk www.cycleboom.org @cycle_BOOM