Bicycle commuting in an automobile-dominated city: how individuals become and remain bike commuters in Charlotte, North Carolina

Kevin B. Caldwell and Robert H. W. Boyer ()
Additional contact information
Kevin B. Caldwell: University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Robert H. W. Boyer: University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Transportation, 2019, vol. 46, issue 5, No 10, 1785-1806

Abstract: Abstract In Charlotte, North Carolina less than one half of 1% of commuters ride a bicycle to work despite several decades of public investment in bicycle infrastructure and planning. Like many fast-growing cities of North America, Charlotte’s rapid physical growth in the past half-century has left its residents little option but to navigate the city by car. To date, research on utility cycling has paid relatively little attention to the practice of bicycle commuting in auto-dominated cities. This article uses grounded theory methodology to build a context- and time-sensitive explanation of how individuals adopt and sustain the practice of bicycle commuting in Charlotte. Through interviews with 26 Charlotte-area bicycle commuters—20 men and 6 women, mean age 40.3—, we find that, according to subjects interviewed, initiating and sustaining the practice of bicycle commuting involves the renegotiation of relationships between the cyclist and (1) the bicycle, (2) other local cyclists, (3) urban space, and (4) the workplace. Dynamics in these relationships are overlapping and simultaneous. This time- and context-sensitive explanation broadens the array of policy interventions that complement the infrastructure-centered approach to promoting cycling in Charlotte today. Elected officials, planners, and bicycle advocates stand to benefit by understanding the transition to cycling as a process of social learning that exposes individuals interested in bicycle commuting to less hostile “neighborhood” thoroughfares.

Keywords: Bicycle; Urban cycling; Utility cycling; Grounded theory methodology; Social practice theory (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11116-018-9883-6 Abstract (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:kap:transp:v:46:y:2019:i:5:d:10.1007_s11116-018-9883-6

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... ce/journal/11116/PS2

DOI: 10.1007/s11116-018-9883-6

Access Statistics for this article

Transportation is currently edited by Kay W. Axhausen

More articles in Transportation from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().