Smart Cycling Futures

Cycling booms in many Dutch cities. While smart cycling innovations promise to increase cycling’s modal
share in the (peri-)urban transport system even further, little is understood of their impact or cost and
benefit. The “Smart Cycling Futures (SCF)” program investigates how smart cycling innovations ─
including ICT-enabled cycling innovations, infrastructures, and social innovations like new business
models ─ contribute to more resilient and liveable Dutch urban regions. Cycling innovations benefit urban
regions in terms of accessibility, equality, health, liveability, and decreasing CO2-emissions when socially well embedded. To facilitate a transition to a sustainable future that respond to pressing issues, the SCF
research project runs urban living labs in close collaboration with key stakeholders to develop
transdisciplinary insights in the conditions needed for upscaling smart-cycling initiatives. Each living lab
involving real-world experiments responds to the urgent challenges that urban regions and their
stakeholders face today. The proposed research sub-programs focus on institutional dynamics,
entrepreneurial strategies, governance and the socio-spatial conditions for smart cycling. Going beyond
analysis, we also assess the economic, social, and spatial impacts of cycling on urban regions. The
research program brings together four Dutch regions through academic institutions (three general and
one applied-science universities); governmental authorities (urban and regional); and market players
(innovative entrepreneurs). Together, they answer practice-based questions in a transdisciplinary and
problem-oriented fashion. Research in the four regions generates both region-specific and universally
applicable findings. Finally, SCF uses its strong research-practice network around cycling to co-create the
research and run an outreach program.