Abstract
In this thesis, I examine the main constraints to the propagation of bicycle commuting in Oslo. Furthermore, recommendations for the promotion of bicycle commuting in Oslo through policymaking are made. Data has been collected by qualitative research methods, including in-depth interviews with 20 commuters in Oslo about their commuting routines. The questions guiding the empirical research process were: What are the main constraints to bicycle commuting in Oslo, and how can policies promote the practice? Why do people commute the way they do? In what ways does the historical trajectory of commuting practices in Oslo shape bicycle commuting today? Findings were analysed in the perspective of social practice theory. Throughout the analysis I demonstrate that people commute in ways that fit into their daily schedules in relation to time, space, convenience, comfort, safety and health. Commuting routines are outcomes of an ongoing process of negotiation with external structures of society, transport systems, geographical and contextual features, material objects and infrastructure, cultural meanings, social expectations, and people s embodied predispositions, including notions of comfort and convenience, competence and knowledge. I found the biggest constraints to bicycle commuting in Oslo today to be its cultural associations with danger, fitness and sports. These associations were largely interconnected with deficient bikeway infrastructure and the cohort of people bicycle commuting today. To increase levels of bicycle commuting, the practice needs to be disconnected from danger and sports/exercise, and (re)connected with meanings of convenience, comfort, safety and ultimately normality. At this stage, building and maintaining safe and consistent bikeways is the most crucial policy intervention. Hard policy measures, such as building bikeway infrastructure, should be supplemented by softer policy measures aimed at altering the meanings connected to the practice.