This post is by Valerie Gamao, Joyce Hujing, J.K., Yipei Shen, Elaine Zhou

Our group is Bicycle Urbanism and Livelihoods. We’re Elaine, Valerie, Yipei, Joyce, and JK. We hail from different states in the US and provinces in China, and three different majors (earth systems, interaction design, and computer science).

I. WHAT WE’VE DONE

Our first day, we brainstormed a variety of questions on urban bicycling and bicycle livelihoods. We used the mind-mapping method to collect all of our questions into four categories: the individual, bicycle, environment, and society. From the brainstorming session, we realized we had so many unanswered questions, even as to “what is a bike?” or what kind of bicycles are relevant to Beijing. Thus, we launched right into our first field study, to get a sense of types of bikes, how and why people bike in this city. We decided to observe the bicycle scene close to our home base: Wudaokou and the Tsinghua East Gate. Our methodology included counting for 6 minutes and informal interviews.

At each site, we recorded 6 minutes of time-lapse footage and counter the number of bikers passing by, as categorized by the types of bike (mechanical, electric, or electric scooter). At Wudoukou, we found 28 mechanical bikes, 9 electric bikes, and 25 scooters. There were many more cars and didn’t seem to be a clear preference for bicycle type. However, it was evident that different bikes were favored by particular demographics — younger people for electric bikes and scooters, versus older folks for mechanical bikes. At the East Gate however, we found 113 mechanical bikes, 11 electric bikes, and 19 electric scooters. With the focus narrowed down to a student demographic on a university campus, the preference for mechanical bikes is very clear.

We also conducted informal interviews around the Wudaokou metro station and the east gate of Tsinghua University. We developed 6 basic questions to find out about their employment, their former and intended destination, their bike preferences, the regularity of their bike use, and their method of obtaining and discarding a bike.

In total, we interviewed 7 people and here are some of the information we gathered from both responses and field observations:

1. Biking is very social. We noticed many people carry a passenger on their bike.
2. Most choose to bike for health-related reasons. For instance, an old man we interviewed has trouble walking so he saw the physical activity as an easier way for him to run errands.
3. Convenience is the biggest factor in deciding which type of bike, mechanical or electrical, to buy. We learned that electric scooters and mechanical bikes overlap in price range, so choice is not due to cost.
4. Most people bike close distances which is about 1-3 km.
5. There are many old and unused bikes parked along the sidewalks.

II. WHY DOES IT MATTER?

Beijing risks losing a lively, thriving, and unique bicycle culture to the takeover of automobiles, which adversely affects air quality, noise pollution, and inactive lifestyles. Beijing’s bicycle culture is one to be admired, and we want to discover what factors initiatives or structures can be used in other cities, and what the city can do to promote such actions as well.

For most of the developed world though, it’s not common to see bicycles next to shiny skyscrapers and windy highways filled with automobiles. Here in Beijing, bicycles continue to play an integral part in maintaining and contributing to the hum of the city. Businesses are built on bicycles (food delivery, fast food, packages, phone services) and services depend on bicycles, especially in harder-to-reach areas (recycling, maintenance). The diversity of bike users in Beijing is astonishing. Everyone uses some sort of bicycle to get around. They range from youth to senior (we interviewed a 82 year old!), from really poor to really rich people, from leisure bikers to lifestyle bikers to those who bike for a living.

III. MOVING FORWARD

After having multiple brainstorm sessions and reading a materials from our partner STC, we decided to narrow our focus to the topic of of bicycle livelihood. We wanted to focus our research on people who use their bicycle to generate income and provide services and goods to other people because we found their prevalence to be unique to the city of Beijing. We broadened our definition from bicycle (two wheels) to include tricycles and wagons, since we noticed so much of bicycle livelihood happens on vehicles with more than two wheels. Additionally, we look forward to meeting with Shannon Bufton, the co-founder of Smarter than Car, this coming Monday and to ask him for guidance on how our group can contribute to her organization’s research despite the small time frame. This weekend, our group looked into STC’s past publications to familiarize ourselves with their findings about bicycle livelihoods.

Upcoming Schedule:

SAT & SUN: reading research & findings, looking at publications
MON: interview w/ Shannon in the morning, afternoon fieldwork
TUE: afternoon fieldwork
WED: afternoon fieldwork
THURS: prepare paper & presentation

大家好！我们是Elaine Zhou（斯坦福大学计算机专业），Valerie Gamao（斯坦福大学地球系统专业），沈易培（清华大学美术学院交互设计专业），胡静（清华大学美术学院交互设计专业），贾琨（清华大学美术学院交互设计专业）。我们来自不同的国家和地区，共同组成了这样一个多学科背景的小组。

在本次工作坊中，我们的小组重点关注在自行车城市化以及自行车谋生之道。

I.我们已经完成的工作

在工作坊的第一天，我们针对自行车城市化以及自行车谋生之道进行了头脑风暴以提出问题。我们运用思维导图的方法将提出的问题归纳为四个类别：骑使者个人、自行车本身、自行车与环境、自行车与社会。通过头脑风暴，我们发现我们面临诸多问题，甚至包括“究竟什么是自行车”，以及“在北京的城市语境下我们最应该关注什么类型的自行车”。因此，我们随即出发开始进行我们的第一次实地调研，去发现这个城市主要的自行车类型，以及人们使用自行车的原因和方式。由于时间有限，我们决定观察清华大学附近的自行车使用场景，于是前往了清华大学东门和五道口地铁站进行观察。我们的研究方法包括定时计量和非正式访谈。

在每一个观察点，我们记录了6分钟的延时影像，并对过往自行车进行了计数和归类（主要分为人力自行车、电动自行车、电动小摩托，另外有一些类似小汽车的电动四轮车并未纳入我们的计算范畴）。在五道口，6分钟内共有28辆人力自行车，9辆电动自行车和25辆电动摩托车经过。在五道口这样一个人流密集的路口，不同的人群对于不同类型的自行车有着各自的使用偏好——年轻人更喜欢电动摩托车而老年人更倾向于人力自行车。在清华大学东门，6分钟内共有113辆人力自行车，11辆电动自行车和19辆电动摩托车经过。该观察点的来往人员以清华大学师生为主，主要活动范围为校园园区以内，所以使用人力自行车成为主流。

同时，我们也在五道口地铁站附近和清华大学东门进行了非正式访谈。我们为每个访谈对象准备了6个问题，从职业、来往去向、对自行车的偏好、自行车使用频率、获取和遗弃自行车方式这6个方面对他们进行了了解。最终，我们在90分钟内采访了7位过往的自行车使用者，如下是我们从其描述中获得的有价值发现：

– 自行车表达了社会关系。我们注意到很多人都在后座搭载着自己的朋友或亲人。
– 很多人认为骑自行车可以锻炼身体保持健康。例如，我们采访了一位患有膝盖疾病的82岁老人，由于走路更加容易对膝盖造成损伤，所以他选择骑行自行来帮助他处理生活琐事。
– 便利性是消费者购买自行车时最重要的考虑因素，这决定了他们会购买何种类型的自行车。同时我们了解到，电动摩托车和人力自行车其实有较大的售价重叠空间（500元~2000元），所以购买自行车的花费并不是影响消费者购买选择的主要因素。
– 大多数自行车使用者的活动范围半径为1至3公里。
– 在交通换乘点（如地铁站）的人行道周边，堆置了很多老旧的或废弃的自行车，并没有得到很好的处置。

II.为什么这个议题值得关注？

北京的高速发展正使其面临城市化的新挑战。北京作为一个历史悠久的城市，有着热闹、繁荣和独特的自行车文化。但急速增长的汽车使用正蚕食着北京的自行车文化，同时也带来了空气质量下降，噪音污染和不活动的生活方式导致的肥胖等一系列环境和社会问题。北京拥有令人羡慕的、独具特点的自行车文化，因此我们希望能挖掘其探索新的手段来推动北京的自行车文化适应新的时代与发展趋势。

对于大多数发达国家，虽然，那是不是经常可以看到自行车旁边闪亮的摩天大楼和多风公路充满了汽车。在北京，自行车继续保持和促进城市的嗡嗡声中发挥不可或缺的一部分。企业是建立在自行车（食品配送，快餐，套餐，电话服务）和服务都依赖于自行车，尤其是在难以到达的区域（回收，维修）。自行车用户在北京的多样性是惊人的。每个人都使用某种形式的自行车来解决。它们的范围从青少年到高级（我们采访A 82岁！），从真可怜，真正有钱的人，从休闲车友生活方式自行车那些谁的自行车为生。

III.继续向前

在多次脑力激荡会议，并阅读了我们的合作伙伴Smarter than Car (STC)的材料之后，我们决定收敛研究重点，主要关注自行车营生之道。我们希望把我们的对谁用自己的自行车以产生收入，提供服务和商品的其他人，因为我们发现了他们的患病率是唯一的北京市人研究。我们扩大了我们的自行车定义（两轮），包括三轮车和马车，因为我们看到了这么多的自行车生活发生在车辆超过两个轮子。此外，我们期待着与香Bufton，比汽车更聪明的创始人之一，下星期一开会，并问她关于如何我们的团队可以尽管小的时间框架促进了组织的研究指导。这个周末，我们的小组调查了STC的过去出版物熟悉一下他们对自行车的生计发现。

下一步计划

– 本周末：阅读Smarter than Car的相关文献，进行桌面研究。
– 下周一：上午听取Smarter than Car联合创始人Shannon Bufton的报告，下午前往雍和宫社区进行自行车探访。
– 下周二：下午进行实地调研。
– 下周三：下午进行实地调研。
– 下周四：论文撰写及汇报材料准备。