Note this syllabus is subject to change. Changes will be reflected on this page and announced in class. The hyperlink below the date of the class links to assignments for that day.
Aug 19
Introduction
Cycling Copenhagen: Through North American Eyes
First Day Slides
Aug 21
Sustainability–Meeting with German Students, Talley 4280
Aug 26–Recap, Sustainability/Automobility and its Costs
Submit Your Reading Response Here Before Class Time
In Class Exercise Comparing Driving and Biking
Form for interest in a low stress greenway ride (bike provided). (Complete by Aug 28)
Aug 28 Meeting with German Students II
Introduction due–through Moodle
Sept 2 Labor Day–No Class
Sept 4 STS Concepts: Technological Determinism, Social Construction, Technological Systems
Motornormativity
Peter Norton “What are Streets For?” in Fighting Traffic: The Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2008)
Susan Handy, “Ideas” in Shifting Gears: Toward a New Way of Thinking About Transportation (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2023)
Ways of Thinking About Technology–Social-Technical Systems
What on Earth (1966 video)
Slides
Padlet Comparing Automotive and Bicycle Socio-Technical Systems
Note: Your reading response should respond to at least either the Handy reading or the Norton reading.
Peter Norton is a historian looking at the rise of the automobile in America. Susan Handy is an engineer/city planner looking at the problems of our system of transportation and why they have been resistant to change. What is meant by “the social construction of technology,” and what does Norton mean when he says “before the city could be physically reconstructed for the sake of motorists, its streets had to be socially reconstructed.” What relevance do you think Norton’s story–about how roads came to be controlled by “motordom,” has for thinking about bicycling in America? What does Norton mean by “motordom.” What are the two main groups of “transportation professionals” Handy sees? What are some of the idea or beliefs that hold each one together? Handy talks about obvious problems with our system of transportation. What are the reasons that change has been slow? (p. 21-23)
September 9 Thinking about Biking/Bike Audits.
Roger Geller, “Four Types of Cyclists,” City of Portland, 2009 (excerpt)
Peter Furth “Bicycle Infrastructure for All,” in Cycling for Sustainable Cities
Peter Furth’s Taxonomy of Bike Infrastructure
Please complete this survey on which of the four types of cyclists best describes you.
Professor Bassett Bikes to Costco/Wegmans. (see questions on this page)
Submit Your Reading Response here by class time
What reason do you think Roger Geller or Peter Furth would give for why urban Americans don’t cycle more? Would you agree with them? Do you see examples of motornormativity in these readings? Where? Where do you see yourself fitting on the four types of cyclists? Given the way Furth breaks down the types of bicycle infrastructure, which of these would you be comfortable riding? Respond to the questions on “Professor Bassett Bikes to Costco/Wegmans.”
September 11 Bike Audits and Bike Audit Preferences Form
Put pictures of bike infrastructure you see around NCSU/Raleigh in this padlet (according to Furth’s infrastructure)
We will break the class into groups of 3 people and assign each group one of four possible bike audit areas. Discuss what you would look for in a bike audit of your area. Post a few examples in this padlet.
Survey for NCSU Students
If I could ask NCSU students one (or two) questions about biking it (they) would be.
(Google Form)
September 16
Review posted groups for Bike Audit in Moodle
Philosophy /Politics–Automobiles and Freedom/Automobiles and Equity
Ivan Illich, Energy and Equity (New York, Harper and Row, 1974), 3-19, 59-64; Susan Handy, “Freedom,” in Shifting Gears: Toward a New Way of Thinking About Transportation (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2023),
Advertisment, “Freedom for the Woman who Owns a Ford”
We typically see greater energy as a positive/liberating thing. Why do we do that and does Illich agree? Illich says that “high quanta of energy degrade social relations,” and that a society’s equity is inversely proportional to its level of energy use. Why does he say that? Do you see anything in our society that supports or refutes Illich’s ideas? We often usually associate the automobile with freedom. Why do we do that? Are there ways in which the automobile makes us less free? (makes others less free?) What are they?
Submit Reading Response Here
Steve Jobs on the Energy Efficiency of the Bicycle
Sept 18 Guest Speaker–Cameron Zamot and the Bike Library
Sept. 23 Experience of Biking Discussion
Group Discussion: The Experience of Biking
Survey on how You did “Experience of Biking”. Anonymous
Sept 25. Policies: Making the United States Car Country/Meet With Groups
Slides
Look at the film “A Trip Down Market Street,” from San Francisco in 1906
Describe what you see. What is a street in San Francisco from this example?
Lewis Mumford, “The Highway and the City,” in The Highway and the City (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanavich, 1963), 234-246.
Questions on Mumford
Video on New York City and Robert Moses (start at minute 47:00)
Walt Disney on Epcot (1966)
Watch from 15:00 to 25:00. What vision did Walt Disney have for cars in Epcot? for other modes of transportation?
Video on Hayti (Durham)
Sept 30 Policies (Europe): Making Bicycling Irresistible
“Amsterdam : World Bicycle Capital, by Chance,” in Cycling Cities : The European Experience, ed. R. Oldenziel et al. (Eindhoven: Foundation for the History of Technology, 2016), 17–27; John Pucher, Ralph Buehler, and Francis Sgm, “Making Cycling Irresistible: Lessons from The Netherlands, Denmark and Germany,” Transport Reviews 28 (August 1, 2008): 495–528.
Factors in Dutch Cycling
A big question is whether the things that made bicycling so popular and successful in the Netherlands are repeatable in other countries, especially the US. What do you see from these readings?
Reading Response for Sept. 30
Oct 2 STS Concepts: Language
Ian Lockwood, “Making the Case for Language Reform,” ITE Journal, January 2017, 41–43.
“Don’t Say ‘Cyclists,’ Say ‘People on Bikes,’” Bloomberg.Com, February 11, 2015, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-02-11/don-t-say-cyclists-say-people-on-bikes.
Oct 7. STS Concepts: Language Bike Lab
Padlet on Language Lab
General Motors Video 1950 “Let’s Go to Town”
I-440 Project: Finding of No Significant Impact
Oct 9. Safety/Law
Rune Elvik, “Cycling Safety,” in Ralph Buehler and John R. Pucher, eds., Cycling for Sustainable Cities, (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2021); Joseph Stromberg, “Stop Forcing People to Wear Bike Helmets,” Vox, May 16, 2014, Charles Marohn, “Follow the Rules, Bikers,” Strong Towns, May 19, 2014,
Robert Thomas Dobler, “Ghost Bikes Memorialization and Protests on City Streets in Peter Jan Margry, Cristina Sánchez-Carretero, and Cristina Sánchez-Carretero, Grassroots Memorials: The Politics of Memorializing Traumatic Death (New York, NY, UNITED STATES: Berghahn Books, Incorporated, 2011),
Conversations with an Engineer
Enter your vehicle and KE on this padlet
Oct 16 Looking at Bicycling Deaths
Reading Response
Oct 21 Greenways (1). Bill Flournoy
William Flournoy, A Report to the City Council on the Benefits, Potential, and Methodology of Establishing a Greenway System in Raleigh. (Raleigh, 1972)
Kristin Wing, An Interactive View of the Raleigh Greenway
Describe the key elements of Raleigh’s Greenway System. How and why was it built?
Reading Response
Exercises on Greenways
Oct 28 Bicycle Advocacy: Oaks and Spokes
John Pucher et al., “Cycling Advocacy in Europe, North America, and Australia” in Ralph Buehler and John R. Pucher, eds., Cycling for Sustainable Cities, (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2021);
Oct 30 Cycling and Inclusivity
Karel Martens, Aaron Golub, and Andre Hamre, “Social Justice and Cycling,” in in Ralph Buehler and John R. Pucher, eds., Cycling for Sustainable Cities, (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2021); Jan Garrard, “Women and Cycling: Addressing the Gender Gap” in Ralph Buehler and John R. Pucher, eds., Cycling for Sustainable Cities, (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2021); Melody Hoffmann, “Recruiting People Like You: Class-Based Recruitment and Bicycle Advocacy in Minneapolis,” in Bike Lanes are White Lanes: Bicycle Advocacy and Urban Planning (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2016), 111-141.
Nov 4 Toole Design–Jared Draper
Toole Design’s web page
Spend some time looking at the Toole Design web page: some things to see
About Us
The New E’s of Transportation
Look at some of the projects they have done, especially in Boston.
What did you notice? Any questions for Jennifer Toole or Jared Draper?
Reading Response
Nov 6. Presentation Bootcamp
{Panopto link}
Nov 11. E-bikes/Bike Sharing
Christopher R. Cherry and Elliot Fishman, “E-Bikes in Europe and North America,” and Elliot Fishman and Susan Shaheen, “ Bikesharing’s Ongoing Evolution and Expansion,” in Ralph Buehler and John R. Pucher, eds., Cycling for Sustainable Cities, (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2021)
What do the authors see as the advantages and challenges of bike sharing and ebikes? Do they (do you) think they will be fundamental “game changers”? Why or why not?
Nov 13 Class Visit–Amanda Simmons NCSU Bike Transportation
November 18
Bike Lab–Biking on Other Campuses
Submit Here by Classtime
Nov. 20 Bike Touring
Nov. 25/Dec. 2 Student Presentations
Moodle Assessments open on Nov. 25, due by Dec. 4
— Individual Reflection
— Group Reflection