ABSTRACT
There is an interesting if not troublesome paradox today in the way in which ordinary cycling takes place in most urban environments across the world. On the one hand, there are the relatively high speeds and levels of confidence which are required to negotiate urban traffic, which have a detrimental effect on both the overall levels of cycling and the demographics of those who ultimately adventure in the practice. With the anecdotal exception of cycling countries, the pedalling populace is predominantly male, young and relatively fit (for the UK context, see Aldred, Woodcock, and Goodman 2016). On the other hand, most of the political efforts of the last two decades or so to increase everyday cycling are concerned with making cycling a ‘viable alternative’ to using the car, at least for the shortest urban trips. But in doing so, speed is rarely placed under scrutiny, as it is unanimously assumed that cycling should be as fast as possible. This becomes visible particularly when considering the notions of ‘convenience’ and ‘directness’ which permeate most design manuals for cycling infrastructure (see Groot 2016, author of the Dutch Design manual for bicycle traffic whose guidelines are currently inspiring many of the bicycle plans in the Western world), or the vocabulary deployed to define provisions such as ‘cycle superhighways’ or ‘bike autobahns’.
