Bicycle Parking and Locking: Ethnography of Designs and Practices

Abstract

Cars, trains, and bicycles are designed to be on the move. Mobilities studies have theorized and analyzed these modes of transport as powerful entities slicing through, and speeding-up, cities. Yet they also stand still, being parked and locked, immobilized and secured, until their next trip. This article contributes with new insights into parking and locking - ‘moorings’ - to cycling literature. It presents an ethnography of ‘design moorings’ and practices associated with parking and locking bikes. The main case study is the very pro-cycling city of Copenhagen. Yet to explore what is unique about Copenhagen, I had to travel to Amsterdam and New York City. This multi-sited approach opens up now surprises, and challenges distinctions between ‘supportive’ and ‘lower cycling cities’ by showing that parking infrastructures are widely perceived as poor in the pro-cycling Copenhagen.

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