Incorporating bicycle lifestyles into design bears unused potentials for policy makers and urban designers to re-structure future cityscapes. In this paper we examine contemporary bicycle lifestyles in Beijing, China to show their role in creating urban livability by servicing urban communities in a culturally diverse, socially valuable and environmentally benign way. We present the results of on-site surveys obtained in and around Beijing’s DongCheng district which investigated livelihoods organized around the bicycle. We present structural, social and economical traits for bicycle livelihoods with an emphasis on bicycle repair stations as an essential element of Beijing’s bicycle culture. We discuss the bicycle’s role as a catalyst for urban livability, flexibility of bicycle services, clustering of bicycle services within the cityscape, processes of urbanism by individuals, importance of bicycle infrastructure and contemporary erosion of the bicycle culture in Beijing. We conclude that bicycle-based retail and service needs to be supported by policy makers and urban designers in order to realize its full potential for benign urban development. We therefore put forward specific suggestions for both, policy makers and urban designers.

The complete paper can be found here (in English) :

https://stcbj.com/research/UIA_10083.pdf