ABSTRACT
So far, this book has been concerned with two main tasks. One involves the utopia of building a different future than the one the system of automobility has already made possible. The proposition I make is that this divergent future could be conceived around slower, human-centred, as well as human-powered urban mobilities, where the bicycle plays a central role. The other task, which is always complementary to the first one, constantly scrutinises the normative propositions of various future projections. Both the car and the bicycle have been engaged in the making of ‘ideal’ urban mobilities, but it proved more complex and problematic than expected. In Chapter 4 I showed how the ‘autopia’ has gradually morphed into a ‘Carmaggedon’ in which even the autonomous, networked and electric cars of the future struggle to make a difference. And in the previous chapter I returned to the bicycle and pointed to the many flawed futures it risks animating, the most important being that of incessant pursuit of mobility, speed and economic growth.
