Spoor, Daan (2022) The effects of COVID-19 on bicycle mobility in Groningen. Master thesis.
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Abstract
To reduce climate change and to keep cities liveable in the future, it is clear a shift towards a more sustainable and future proof mobility system in cities is necessary. However, the current car-dominated mobility system seems unbreakable. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a massive impact on our lives and our cities. Mobility within cities radically changed within weeks as a result of homeworking. Globally, cities have implemented temporary measures to stimulate cycling and walking, for example by converting car lanes into bicycle lanes. In this way the COVID-19 pandemic could potentially be a window of opportunity for a transition towards more sustainable mobility such as cycling. This research is an empirical single case study focused on the city of Groningen. The city has been slowly banning cars from the inner city already since the 1970’s. The city recently published its new mobility vision, in which they state their ambition to create even more space for sustainable mobility such as walking and cycling. This desire for more sustainable mobility in Groningen could be accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, as unexpected events can lead to a game changer resulting in a transition according to transition theory. The purpose of this research is to learn how the physical distancing measures as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic structurally have affected the urban bicycle mobility system and the related bicycle policies in the city of Groningen. The central question of this research is thus: ‘’How could COVID-19 have a structural effect on the urban bicycle mobility of Groningen?’’. This question has been answered by means of a mixed methods research in which data required from qualitative interviews is supported by quantitative data required from a dataset. It can be concluded that although the COVID-19 pandemic in Groningen was indeed a window of opportunity for stimulating cycling, as immediate (bicycle) mobility was affected severely by the pandemic, in the end not a lot of (policy) action have been made to seize this window of opportunity to effectively stimulate cycling on long-term.
Item Type: | Thesis (Master) |
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Degree programme: | Environmental & Infrastructure Planning |
Supervisor: | Puerari, E. |
Date Deposited: | 29 Mar 2022 14:17 |
Last Modified: | 29 Mar 2022 14:17 |
URI: | https://frw.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/3804 |
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