Improving Urban Wellbeing: As Easy as Riding a Bike
AECOM’s Jack Jiang discusses his motivations when working in the cycling space as Christchurch, New Zealand, rebuilds itself post-earthquake.
The landscape of post-earthquake Christchurch, New Zealand, is changing rapidly. When there is change, there will be innovation. Cycling in Christchurch is featured in the media frequently, people talk about it on the street, local councils promote it and the politicians discuss it at meetings. But this topic in Christchurch is particularly interesting as the city rebuilds itself after a devastating natural disaster.
The social, environmental, health and urban benefits of cycling have been well researched internationally. However, our built environment is having a hard time adapting, delivering and maximising these benefits that have been outlined academically. The recovery work in Christchurch created a unique opportunity where, as designers, we could rethink how a city can function and fast-track some of these adaptations.
People often ask me, “Why is cycling important for a contemporary city?”
I think urban cycling or utilitarian cycling, when designed right, can bring the most cost-effective benefits to a community among transport infrastructure options, and complement a city’s existing transport system. For example, cycleways are physically cheaper to build and maintain. They require less space, and they have higher capacity for cars than roads. While the cost, space and capacity arguments for cycling are great when compared to traditional roading, that is not why I’m motivated to work in the cycling space.
I’m motivated by the ideas of connect, control and happiness. They are the distillation of decades of my riding for fitness, commute, errands and most importantly, for fun. These three ideas guided me through my post-graduate studies, years of professional work, and they stay true to this day.
Connect refers to connections with your environment and the social aspect of human behaviour. Riding a bicycle in the city creates an environment where you are immersed within your surroundings through all your senses. You see the faces of people walking or riding bicycles, you feel the wind on your face and the potholes on the road, and you interact with the person next to you on your daily commute.
Riding a bicycle gave me a sense of control in my life. The feeling of me physically controlling my destiny through a bicycle is a psychologically satisfying emotion that is difficult to experience in our unpredictable world. Also, there is something special about the simplistic mechanics required to achieve this feeling — just go for bike ride!
Happiness is an underrated aspect of cycling. The smile of a kid who just learnt how to ride a bicycle says a thousand words; it is one of the purest expressions of “happiness.” Our increased responsibilities once grown-up mean that this sense of pure enjoyment is harder to come by. An academic colleague who is doing a Ph.D. on happiness and cycling said that, “There is a mentality that commuting has to be miserable, and I’m doing it wrong if I’m having fun while doing it.” He went on to identify that the medical field argues that the inclusion of physical exercise within transit is one of the main reasons why the cycling transit environment is enjoyable. The writer Darrin Nordahl even published a book in 2012 titled Making Transit Fun! that explores some of these ideas.
My three motivations all contain an element of looking after our mental health, which I think is important when discussing riding bicycles. Medical research has shown that for the first time in history, the current generation is able to make itself feel unwell despite good physical health. This can be the result of the lack of social and physical interaction with other human beings as a result of our digitally connected world.
It’s relatively easy to provide physical cycling infrastructure. But how can we create better social capital through cycling in order to capitalise on the great benefits that are presented in academia?
One way to start triggering these benefits is through bike-share, where the community is given easy access to bicycles throughout Christchurch. AECOM was the first corporate backer for the Christchurch BikeShare program. I would like to thank the senior leadership in New Zealand for sharing the vision I have for the Christchurch community, and I hope our role continues to go beyond simply providing infrastructure, and contributes to the social wellbeing of the community around us.
Now, how about a bike ride?
Check out more blog posts on infrastructure in the AECOM Connected Cities blog!
About AECOM
AECOM is a premier, fully integrated professional and technical services firm positioned to design, build, finance and operate infrastructure assets around the world for public- and private-sector clients. With nearly 100,000 employees — including architects, engineers, designers, planners, scientists and management and construction services professionals — serving clients in over 150 countries around the world, AECOM is ranked as the #1 engineering design firm by revenue in Engineering News-Record magazine’s annual industry rankings, and has been recognized by Fortune magazine as a World’s Most Admired Company. The firm is a leader in all of the key markets that it serves, including transportation, facilities, environmental, energy, oil and gas, water, high-rise buildings and government. AECOM provides a blend of global reach, local knowledge, innovation and technical excellence in delivering customized and creative solutions that meet the needs of clients’ projects. A Fortune 500 firm, AECOM companies, including URS Corporation and Hunt Construction Group, had revenue of approximately $19 billion during the 12 months ended Dec. 31, 2014. More information on AECOM and its services can be found at www.aecom.com.
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