Processes of civic participation in the implementation of sustainable urban mobility systems

Abstract

The quality of urban life is based on sustainable mobility plans, and the bicycle is becoming increasingly important. This way of transport and its use result from a combination of urban policies, local movements, singularities of the context and social configurations. This article shows the extent to which mobility policy development and implementation models give room to pro-bike urban movements and to those who influence its promotion. It also shows the importance of citizen participation in decisions on bicycle mobility systems. In this way a methodological framework is proposed in order to know the processes of implementation of sustainable mobility policies, the evolution and effects of urban pro-bike movements, to determine their relation of interaction and to analyse civic participation mechanisms in the development of these cycling systems of mobility. Therefore a two decade long (1990–2010) case study about two Spanish cities in the process of cycling transition, Madrid and Seville, is carried out.