As transport and commuting patterns are changing and being transformed by the pandemic, TInnGO is investigating how public space and transport’s dynamics are affecting different groups. With cities and the urban space having its historic and social inequalities magnified in this scenario, policy makers and council planning should be even more aware to how certain groups are being affected. Transport, gender and race-ethnicity are being investigated in one upcoming paper, on how urban spaces and commuting influence minorities’ use, perception and access to public spaces. Visibility and social perception of minority groups is being affected even more by the pandemic, where emptied urban spaces allowing for ‘negative visibility’ for certain groups, especially the black community, and how the BAME population is still more likely to be stopped by the police. Racial profiling discourages people’s equal access to public spaces and commuting, with cycling also being affected by this, at a time when the opportunity for promoting active methods of transport is being highlighted during the pandemic. The image of cycling is still white and male and raises red flags on how urban planners and authorities need to incentivise safer and healthier modes of transport whilst fighting racial biases in cycling and commuting alternatives, now and in a post-pandemic scenario.
Further reading:
http://bloomingrock.com/2014/08/05/is-biking-only-for-fit-white-people/
https://theconversation.com/the-unbearable-whiteness-of-cycling-76256
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ethicallivingblog/2009/aug/10/cycling-white-sport
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ethicallivingblog/2009/aug/10/cycling-white-sport
