Sensory ecologies on cycling infrastructure: An exploration of the rebalancing of the senses on the move

International audienceMobility studies build on theories of ambiances to better take account, in their methodology, of the phenomenological and aesthetical dimensions (temporality, rhythms, materialities, sensitive and affective aspects of space and practices) at stake in the continual transformation processes of cycle practices, equipment and infrastructure. This paper investigates the potential for sustainable development of this current transformation to increase the sentient capacities and the ambient sensibility of mobile actors. Focusing on cycling infrastructure, it describes the renewed aesthetical relationships and affective resonance to it, underlain by a tension between paradoxical values traditionally associated with social constructions of differentiated gender categories, of (1) modern emancipation (individualist, conquering, ‘masculine’) and (2) environmental consciousness (‘feminine’: care and attention to the vulnerability of others, herself, and animal and vegetal species). Initial observations during ride-along interviews conducted with regular utilitarian cyclists in France will help unveil the potential, with qualitative, landscaped infrastructure design, to open up a new way to resonate with infrastructure and rebalance the relationship to the environment. It intensifies both the movement aesthetical experience, assimilated with personal freedom, and the sensitive experience of the fragile environment in the context of ecological crisis