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Cycling infrastructure and "nature": The role of urban nature in redefining the aesthetical experience of cycling in France since the 1990s

par Pelgrims, Claire
Référence TIS seminar (26 June: TU Eindhoven)
Publication Non publié, 2025-06-26

Communication à un colloque

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Résumé :

The pace of cycling offers a specific relationship with built and natural environments, and plays a key role in making cyclists aware of the quality of their environments. Yet, cycling infrastructure has evolved over time and, therefore, differently constrained the potential sensory-motor ways of being and perceiving one’s environment on the infrastructure. The design standards and cycling infrastructure themselves have significantly evolved over the past quarter of a century, reflecting changing expectations in terms of safety, sociability, exposure of the body, but also in terms of aesthetic experiences –notably of exposure to natural environments. In this presentation, I'll consider cycling infrastructures as one example of the transformation and renegotiation of the relationship between nature and city, and the supposed and supported roles of urban nature in relation to mobilities in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. The first part of the research analyses and compares the evolution of design standards and cycling infrastructure in France since the 1990s. The comparison focuses on the details of the layout and infrastructure hierarchy. The second part of the presentation then focuses on the place given to vegetation in the designs, the promoted relationship with 'natural' urban spaces and the arguments that support them, focusing specifically on the interplay between French infrastructure networks linked to tourism and leisure, and everyday urban cycling infrastructure.