Urban Cycling Institute – Bringing cycling knowledge from science to practice and back

"Under the seeming disorder of the old city, wherever the old city is working successfully, is a marvelous order for maintaining the safety of the streets and the freedom of the city"

Jane Jacobs

The Death and Life of Great American Cities

Bringing cycling knowledge from science to practice and back

Cycling is a simple means that connects to a wide range of very complex problems and challenges of contemporary cities. It is intertwined with many aspects of urban life in all its richness and complexity.

Academic attention for this has been very limited. A more structured approach is needed to map these complex relations, understand best practices and foster reciprocal learning between research and practice.

MOOC Unravelling the Cycling City

Unraveling the Cycling City, the world's first academic online course on cycling, is offered by the University of Amsterdam on Coursera. The MOOC covers state-of-the-art knowledge that emerges from research and practice on the Dutch cycling system. Using cycling as a boundary object, we seek to open minds for the complexity of our cities support group deliberations around the world. Join more than 8,000 others that have already enrolled.

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Spokes! Ridecast

The Urban Cycling Institute podcast where we talk about the latest in news and academic research from around the world

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Summer School Planning the Cycling City

Explore urban cycling from a Dutch perspective, both historical and current, and gain a host of skills on how to develop and foster cycling cities. The 3-week course at the University of Amsterdam includes seminars, guest speakers, fieldwork/excursions, small group discussion, a final public event and course projects. The content of the lectures will gradually shift from theory, to application, to reflection. All of this while experiencing the world's leading cycling city and nation all around you!

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Taking a multidisciplinary approach to understanding the intricate web of causes and effects of urban cycling.
Balancing a critical academic stance with a pragmatic practice-oriented approach of developing and disseminating knowledge
Providing a fertile ground for sharing knowledge and learning about urban cycling on all levels of the academic curriculum

Research Themes

Interdisciplinary research on cycling

Cycling is connected to a wide range of demographic, ethnic and social dynamics in our cities and regions. Cycling also has intricate links between processes on an individual level. We aim to bring sociologists, anthropologists, geographers, psychologists, engineers and urban planners together around these themes.

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Developing and integrating new methods

Cycling's unique characteristics require us to to go beyond conventional research methods such as traffic counts, transport modeling and questionnaires. We develop and employ qualitative methods such as participatory observations and in depth interviewing techniques to create innovative insights in the space time behavior of individuals and its impact on out urban space.

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Comparative urbanism

The Netherlands, and especially Amsterdam offer an ideal setting in which cycling is an integral part of mobility choices in our daily lives. There are many profound differences in this context that merit academic attention, but we expect most value from international comparative studies. We take a structured approach to exchanging knowledge about Dutch cycling in an international context (and vice versa).

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Resources

Popular & Academic Book Reviews

We review the the leading popular and academic books on the topic of cycling.

Research Paper Summaries

Join our affiliate Cycling Research Review for weekly reviews of academic papers on the topic of cycling.

Database of Bicycle Infrastructure Design Manuals

A crowd-sourced database of bicycle infrastructure and design manuals from around the world. View our database here!

Resources for Designing a Bicycle User Experience

Designing a Bicycle User Experience (BUX) maintains an open toolkit of methods to document people’s cycling experiences, tell their stories, and design cycling infrastructure that is easy and pleasant for them to use.

Our Services

Blended Learning Workshop: A companion to Unravelling the Cycling City MOOC

Have you engaged in the MOOC (release January 6, 2020) and are interested in diving deeper with our faculty from the Urban Cycling Institute? Come visit us in Amsterdam or we can facilitate a workshop in your city. Contact us for details!

Keynote Speaking Engagements

Are you looking for an expert to speak at your conference, event, or workshop? We deliver keynotes addressing a variety of urban mobility challenges. Contact us to request a member of our team!

Expert Consultation

We have served an advisory partners on multiple EU projects and many of our faculty have international consulting expertise. Contact us and we’ll put you in touch with a member of our team!

Experiential Learning Tours

For learners of all types – both student and professional groups – our self-lead and guided bike rides embed lessons about urban planning and transport concepts into the city itself. Using Amsterdam as a playing board, we aim for our learners to discover and unpack various elements of Dutch cycling. Contact us for rates and packages