Smart Cities and (Smart) Cycling: Exploring the Synergies in Copenhagen and Amsterdam
ABSTRACT In cities worldwide, cycling is increasingly upgraded with smart technology and is included in smart cities' visions and projects. This process has not been problematized in public discourse, as smart innovation is seen as a potential booster of the known benefits of cycling. Drawing on critical literatures on smart cities, smart mobility, and degrowth and using the case studies of Copenhagen and Amsterdam, the article opens up a more critical conversation on the subject, discussing the role of "techno-solutionism,” technology push, and pro-innovation bias in the process of “smartification” of cycling.
focusing on the cities of Copenhagen and Amsterdam as case studies, the article answers the following questions: What is the role of cycling in envisioning smart cities? What are the rationales for cycling planners and advocates to engage in the smartification of urban cycling? What is the relationship between “smartness,” understood as incorporating ICT/IoT technology and the low-tech nature of cycling?