Zen and the art of urban cycle service design

I've been bitten by the cycling bug this summer, and after seeing the sheer numbers at the London to Brighton bike ride last month, as well as experiencing the pitfalls of long distance cycling on top of my usual hair-raising commute to work, I felt it high time to pull together my thoughts and observations on how to support two-wheeled endeavours.

poor motorists...

Cycling is increasingly important as a means to reduce pollution and congestion on city roads and also to combat the UK's increasing problems with obesity and chronic illnesses. Yet infrastructure, support, services and even cultural attitudes fall short of the value cycling offers to the environment, economy and society.

The Experience of Cycling
Cyclists are vulnerable on the road, and while segregated cycle lanes help eliminate accidents with other traffic, they aren't realistic as a solution everywhere. The TFL website and free cycle maps are helpful for London, whilst the charity Sustrans has been developing a national cycle network since the 1970's.

if only it was all like this...

Whilst knowing your highway code and being a confident cyclist will reduce your chances of an injury, all too often cyclists are injured with little idea of what their rights are. How best to act immediately after an accident is still in the realm of hearsay.

Whilst many new inexperienced cyclists will inevitably lead to accidents, there is a great gulf between where motorists' attitudes towards cyclists are at present in London and where they should be. Hit and runs, intimidation and abuse are rife and will only serve to generate reciprocal hostility and generate a downward spiral of behaviour.

Of course, there must be compromise, and cyclists are being given the opportunity to sit in HGV cabs to empathise with drivers who cause many accidents because they can't see cyclists. Simultaneously, such vehicles are being fitted with sensors to fill the blind spots.

Cycling communities such as Critical Mass act to raise awareness, act as a lobby and encourage participation. Montreal and Copenhagen are at the head of the field in achieving (some) harmony between cyclists and the city, largely because of their prioritisation of cultural attitudes to ensure safer roads.


Cycling is an inclusive activity, as long as you aren't bothered by the sneers of Shaun Armstrong wannabes when you roll up next to them on your dad's knackered racer. However, services around cycling and shop environments are largely male oriented, with staff and customers being young athletic and male, which can be intimidating for anyone not in those categories. TfL last year trialled a free outdoors one-day bike surgery, and IDEO even developed a super low-maintenance bike and inclusive purchasing experience to reduce the need for such visits altogether.

Economy (vs) Environment
The cost savings against the car are huge. Personally even the cost of public transport combined with a miserable commute by train what the key to my conversion. You can also have a look at how much you can save in CO2 and money, here. The government has further encouraged cycling through Ride2Work - a slightly painful beaureaucratic process which provides tax incentives for employers and employees to buy new bikes, and has resulted in a huge surge in demand which has left manufacturers struggling to keep up.

Whilst the UK car industry hangs in peril, it is also bloated and unsustainable, both economically and environmentally. It's a real shame that the UK scrappage scheme is another example of how the economy and environment are often pitted against each other.

The Velibre-style schemes, successful in Paris but largely a failure in Barcelona, is an example of how the economy and environment can both benefit. Tourists and day commuters pay to hire bikes for as little as 30 minutes. This helps reduce traffic and keep the air quality in a city cleaner, which attracts more tourists and improves the living environment of locals. The scheme is to be introduced in London next year. I'll be delving into more specific examples in the future, but for the time being, I'd encourage you all to get cycling to help reach that critical mass!

Future Flight at the Science Museum

This week I participated in a talk at the Science Museum entitled 'Future Flight'. Held at the Dana Centre, with three other speakers who were engineering luminaries from Manchester Met, Cambridge and Bauhaus Luftfahrt.

My talk covered the evolution of the design of airports and aeroplanes from a product-based and engineering-driven model, to an experience and service-based and user-driven model.



It described how with most airlines using similar technology (planes), the thing that differentiates them is the services they offer. This was then followed by a description of the complexities of designing experiences, particularly for such massive spaces such as airports and airplanes, which is seen when you take the needs, desires, abilities and mindsets of all the different passengers that will use them at the same time.

The brief introduction to the subject was rounded up with some details of the different methodologies that could be employed to research, inform and design such complex experiences such as working from the bottom up rather than the top down, placing the user at the heart of the design process.



Emotional journey mapping and the principles of co-designing with end users were used as examples of such methodologies, with quick case studies such as Engine's Connections Experience or T5 info zone included to illustrate.

The presentation stuck out from the other three who gave interesting insights into the future of aerodynamics, sustainability issues and how technology is falling behind in comparison to user demand and sheer numbers of people in the air and the environmental effects as a result. However, the marathon one-hour per speaker q & a session that followed was reassuringly passionate, as everyone there has had some good, bad, weird and wonderful experiences of flying, and it is precisely those human experiences that I am interested in.