Written for my Contemporary Design Issues class at Swinburne University of Technology discussing that Melbourne was declared a bike city – and the biking capital of Australia. Was this the right decision? And how do we compare our status to the likes of European cities.
Urban design is about creating liveable spaces. It’s about making cities more accessible, functional, and sustainable. It also plays a role in reducing traffic congestion, improving air quality, and promoting public health. A cycling-friendly city requires good infrastructure for biking. A well-connected bicycle network is needed to provide safe access to schools, workplaces, shops, transit stations and other destinations of interest. We will look at strategies from these cities like Lagos, Nigeria; Tunis, Tunisia; and Melbourne, Australia and how they’re designing solutions to better connect their cities, positively change the environment and make cycling more inclusive for their inhabitants.
Cycling is an increasingly important choice of transport. With the ever-increasing levels of congestion, investment in public transport has become necessary. The investment in cycling infrastructure might be the answer to the problem - it’s about time we made cycling an easy and safe alternative to commuting. Cycling is not just a health buzzword, but a practical solution to urban congestion, which is only expected to get worse with population growth.
Bogota mayor, Enrique Penalosa said ‘Sustainable urban design can be the foundation for social justice’ (Kontentreal Productions, 2006) when thinking about how to improve the quality of life for his city. Smart, creative urban design is the answer to the growing problems of overcrowding, environmental degradation, and economic stagnation. Urban design for cities should be considered as an opportunity to create spaces that are cleaner, greener, more inclusive and economically thriving. The right urban design can have a positive effect on our society in many ways. It can help with traffic congestion, improve air quality, and reduce pollution. It can also contribute to improved social statistics.
The population of Nigeria is currently around 190 million, making it the most populous country in Africa. Nigeria is also the largest economy on the continent and has one of the highest poverty rates in the world. Nigeria is a young country with more than half (54%) of its population under 25 years old. The majority of Nigerians live in rural areas and rely on agriculture for their livelihoods. According to FAO, about 35% of Nigerians are food insecure and 10% are severely food insecure. Nigerians are disproportionally affected by poverty because they lack access to basic services like healthcare, education, or sanitation. Women and children fare worse than men because they require more resources to survive due to their traditional roles as caregivers who struggle to find work outside the home.
The WeCycle program is a social enterprise founded with the goal of reducing poverty and inequality in Nigeria. They aim to create jobs, provide people with employment opportunities, and build sustainable businesses all while creating a cleaner environment. WeCycle began with the idea of recycling waste materials. They collect unwanted materials from around the city of Lagos, where they live, and recycle them into new products which they then sell at a discounted rate to customers who can’t afford new goods. The program launched a mobile collection service employing people to ride around their neighbourhoods on bikes collecting recycling materials in the dense areas that cars or trucks could not access. Since starting, they have managed to collect 9510 tons of recyclables while reaching over 20,000 homes.
The success of this program in Lagos, is a strategy that can be replicated across the world easily and is an affordable solution to help cities have a positive impact on their environment, peoples well beings and their economies.
The bicycle is often seen as a means of transportation for the poor. This stereotype has long been in place, and even today it persists. The poorest people who live in developing countries use bicycles for their daily commutes because they can’t afford other modes of transport like cars or buses. But there are many people who own bikes and use them for recreational purposes, while others use them to get to work. In Tunis, Tunisia an advocacy group called Vélorution Tunisie is looking to change that stigma around bike usage in their city. For 2 years they have been running ‘Tunis by Bike’ an event to normalise bike usage on the streets and that bikes can be another means of transportation for anyone and just not the poor.
How can they influence a city with no strong infrastructure to stimulate bike usage? Strategising with strong communication design. The communication design of a non-profit organisation is a crucial component of their marketing, to raise awareness about their cause, non-profits need to make sure they are designing their communications in a way that stands out from the masses. From their materials, you can see how visual communication plays an important role in spreading their messages, not only for diversity for bicycle usage, but the importance of health benefits, environmental and economic advantages of bicycle usage. Vélorution Tunisie President, Hamza Abderrahim “[The bicycle] represents a global and international solution to fight against pollution, health problems, and the economic crisis. It is a healthy and ecological solution. We must change the mentalities surrounding this mode of transportation and make it clear that all social classes can ride a bike.” (Martin, 2018). Below you can see a few examples of how they archive this with strong colours, contrasting typography, photography, and visual hierarchy. These help the organisation to promote their events and communicate their message, one example even tackles the recent pandemic and communicating the importance of being vaccinated to take part in the biking events and that their events are a safe space during the COVID pandemic.
As we have looked at 2 examples from cities that are from seemingly poverty-stricken regions, Lagos and Tunis who are both executing incredible strategies and ideas with little help from smart urban planning. We will look at Melbourne, Australia. A city with a much smaller population and an economy to back urban design. The city of Melbourne is often called the most liveable city in the world. It has a diverse urban culture with many different architectural styles, which can be seen through their diverse housing types.
Melbourne was ranked the world’s most liveable city for five consecutive years up to 2015 by The Economist Intelligence Unit. This is due to its innovation and sustainability, as well as its quality of life and education. The Economist attributes Melbourne’s success to its urban design and planning, low crime rates and easy transportation options including bicycle accessibility.
It is important to first understand the environment and culture of a city before making changes. Educating people about cycling can help to improve the quality of life. It is important for the government to work with those who are commuting by bike as well as those who use their bikes as a mode of transport. This will ensure that policies and policies will promote an environment that will allow these cyclists to safely commute on their bikes, while still being able to do other things in their daily lives.
The City of Melbourne’s 2016-2020 bicycle plan looked at:
- Planning for people to ride bikes by incorporating cycling into future growth and transport projects.
- Connecting bicycle network and facilities by developing more cycling corridors, making it easier for people to ride in their local communities.
- And finally, a safe and encouraging environment with increasing separation, reduced speed limits and safer intersections when bikes and cars are together. And more safety programs for kids, parents, and new residents.
With a modern approach to urban design, cities can create a way for more people to choose cycling as an option. When we design the city in a more cycle friendly way, we will get more people on bikes and less in cars. Cycling infrastructure is just one of many factors that help us get more people on bicycles and less in cars. Connected bike networks are an important part of urban planning for connected bike cities because they reduce congestion and improve the quality of life.
It’s known that riders will choose for a longer route if there are dedicated bike trails and paths, studies shows that 65% of people preferred this as they look for comfort and safety as their priority (City of Melbourne, n.d, p13). With this information, the bike plan shows that Melbourne will concentrate on creating cycling corridors from strategic areas in and around Melbourne. Areas that include urban renewal, major employment, education, health, and recreation precincts as well as major sport and entertainment precincts. See the map below on the plans for these strategic corridors.
The design of cities should be smart, inclusive, creative and should cater to the needs of all citizens, no matter their economic status. With cities like Lagos and Tunis, they turned to strategies that involved people more than infrastructure. They executed ideas that would directly impact livelihoods, by providing employment, environmental programs and inclusive events to show that cycling is for everyone. Melbourne looked to boost their infrastructure in cycling, by providing people dedicated space to cycle, inserting cycling into planning of future growth into the city and making Melbourne a safer space for people.
The goal of sustainable urban design is to create a better quality of life for the citizens. To do this, we need to make the cities more liveable and healthier with a diverse network of transportation, green spaces, and social justice. The way in which a city looks has a huge impact on how it functions. This is because most people spend their time in urban environments and thus it influences how they interact with the space around them. A sustainable urban design should be based on principles such as liability, sustainability, accessibility, diversity, and social justice. The principles are interconnected so that if one is compromised then so are all the others.
Bibliography
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- City of Melbourne. (n.d). Bicycle plan.
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- Lagos, Nigeria - Copenhagenize. (n.d.). Copenhagenize Index.
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- Melbourne Bike Tour. (2016). Photograph.
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- Owoo, N. S. (2020). Demographic considerations and food security in Nigeria. Journal of Social and Economic Development, 23(1), 128–167.
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- Tunis, Tunisia - Copenhagenize. (2019). Copenhagenize Index.
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- World’s most “liveable” cities. (2019, October 2). The Economist.