Metropolitics

Private Infrastructure and Urban Government: How Vélib' Veered Off Course in Paris

Maxime Huré & translated by Oliver Waine — 2019-05-17T05:00:00Z

When the city of Paris entrusted its decade-old bike-share service, Vélib', to a new provider in January 2018, multiple problems ensued. Maxime Huré looks back on the opportunities and pitfalls presented by the changes of scale and operator that this switchover entailed, and sheds light on public authorities' mistakes, misgivings, and above all their growing dependence on large, globalized firms.
The Vélib' bicycle-sharing system, launched in 2007 in partnership with French

- Debates / bicycles, mobility, transport, public transportation, self-service, urban public service, Île-de-France, Paris region, Greater Paris, Paris, privatization, public–private partnership, municipal, urban services, urban technical networks, active mobility, Vélib', bicycle-sharing, cycling

Understanding São Paulo's Bicycle Wars

Derek Pardue — 2015-12-08T06:00:00Z

In São Paulo, Brazil, bike lanes are a new phenomenon in a city historically dominated by automobiles. In the context of public-sector efforts to increase and diversify urban mobility, they are also at the center of furious political and social debate about who has a right to the city's streets and, by extension, who counts as a citizen.
Every week, a new viral video about São Paulo's city center circulates on social media, depicting conflict in the streets and hateful slurs hurled at

- Debates / public space, São Paulo, transport, bicycles, citizenship, right to the city, Brazil, cycling

Clitoral Mass: A Women-of-Color Ride Through Los Angeles

Jennifer Candipan — 2015-06-02T05:00:00Z

Every year in the summer, a group of women, women of color, and women-identified riders cycle through the city of Los Angeles to reclaim space and visibility in a city that too often ignores them and their needs. Jennifer Candipan, a participant and researcher, describes and analyzes the reasons and effects of the 2014 Clitoral Mass ride.
On a mid-August Saturday, nearly 300 bicyclists descended upon Downtown Los Angeles's Grand Park to kick off Clitoral Mass 2014, an annual 33‑mile,

- From the Field / public space, gender, United States, Los Angeles, bicycles, Lefebvre, minorities, right to the city, cycling

For cities of a different nature

Jérémy Grangé & Sylvain Petitet & translated by Oliver Waine — 2014-03-26T05:50:00Z

City-dwellers want to see more of their metropolitan areas turned over to nature and urban public spaces; however, our cities today are still structured by a network of roads that were primarily built to manage motor traffic flows. Sylvain Petitet and Jérémy Grangé show how implementing sustainable urban infrastructure could provide city-dwellers with easy and convenient access to the places that generate most of their journeys, revealing a new form of network-based public space.
The 20th

- Essays / public space, public transportation, sustainable development, nature, well-being, bicycles, infrastructures, pedestrian, infrastructure, cycling

From Vélib' to Autolib': private corporations' involvement in urban mobility policy

Maxime Huré & translated by Oliver Waine — 2012-04-25T06:35:58Z

In December 2011 – four years after the launch of Vélib' – Paris inaugurated Autolib', the largest system of self-service electric cars in the world. Leaving aside the debate on the economic and technical viability of Autolib', the development of self-service mobility services has brought with it the increased involvement of large private groups in the production of urban policy, contributing to the privatisation of public spaces and redefining the notion of public service.
With the

- Debates / mobility, transport, public–private partnership, urban public service, self-service, bicycles, cars, privatization, urban technical networks, urban services, Vélib', bicycle-sharing, active mobility, transport policy, cycling