The “UNravelling dIfferent CYCLING futures” (UNICYCLING) project responds to the Brussels Capital Region’s challenge of reducing car dependence, which is key driver of pollution, emissions, safety risks, and car-oriented urban planning, at a moment when the Good Move Regional Mobility Plan and low-traffic neighbourhoods have become politically contested despite cycling’s well-documented health, social, and economic benefits. While cycling mode share has risen over the past decade, gains are uneven and resistance is strongest in dense inner-city, working-class neighbourhoods, revealing geographical, socio-economic, and cultural disparities in cycling uptake.
UNICYCLING will map and explain current cycling cultures and propensity to cycle across contrasting neighbourhoods by analysing not only “materials” (infrastructure, modes) but also “meanings” (norms, identities, perceived legitimacy), “competences” (skills, confidence, maintenance), and “policy and planning” (rules, incentives). Using an interdisciplinary mixed-method design (policy analysis, quantitative, qualitative and participatory research methods), UNICYCLING will co-produce a qualitative systems map of cycling cultures with stakeholders, then develop consistent, plausible, and contrasting 2050 cycling-culture scenarios. The project will then identify the policy packages for cycling that are robust in the face of all plausible mobility scenarios, and assess the consequences of the policy packages on different socio-economic groups.
The exploratory scenarios and policy packages will be developed by Cross-Impact Scenario Policy Analysis (CRISPA) algorithm, a foresight method based on systems thinking, and the raw scenarios will be creatively elaborated at multiple workshops through narratives and visuals. A diverse group of actors, including policymakers, civil servants, NGOs, and citizens, will participate in UNICYCLING through a series of workshops, outreach events, media appearances, and a final event as part of a participatory process.
More info on the project website: www.unicycling.brussels