Browsing by Subject "mobility"

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
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    In Search of New Riders: Affective Exclusions and Bicycle Planning in Minneapolis/Saint Paul
    (2015-09) Lindeke, William
    Riding a bike is typically viewed as something most people can simply do without thinking, an automatic response latent inside one’s body from childhood. Thus, in a useful way, the cliché “it’s just like riding a bike” refers to the connection between technology and the body, which can bypass the consciousness-based model of behavior in provocative ways. But at the same time, the phrase subsumes a complex relationship within a seemingly automatic response. The fact that riding a bicycle is often taken for granted erases subtle differences between how and why people ride. Rather than an innate human capacity, for many people riding a bike is an experience that offers a wide range of emotional dynamics. By examining how “riding a bike” differs depending on specific bodies, spaces, and technological relationships, we can learn how subjectivity forms in relation to social and material environments. The complex relationship the body, bicycle, and space challenges assumptions that govern urban systems. Current bicycling trends have shifted debates around bicycling in ways that challenge traditional approaches of bike planners and advocates, particularly in attempts to attract new riders. Yet without a careful understanding of how and why bicycling differs from dominant automobile-centered transportation, urban decision makers risk re-inscribing existing patterns of mobility at the expense of a more impactful future. In this dissertation, I examine how differences emerge around everyday bicycling as a relational capacity to act, locating my approach within the field of “mobilities studies.” I use the concept of the affective assemblage, a concept that describes the relational dynamics of the bicycle, bodies, and diverse kinds of urban space. I then describe how bicycle planning debates that emerged in the 1970s pivoted around assumptions that privileged specific age, gender, race, and class positions at the expense of others. I extend these debates into the present by looking at how contemporary approaches frame design debates in ways that simultaneously include and exclude certain ways of moving. Next, drawing on urban spatial theory and qualitative research, I examine how bicycle riders employ tactics based on social capacities for feeling “in place to negotiate pathways through changing urban terrain. These spatial practices are connected with a nonlinear urban landscape that displays spatial gaps fundamental to developing bicycling habits in different ways, and lay the foundation for affective difference. Next, drawing on crowd theory, I outline how patterns form around particular aspects of the bicycle assemblage, so that clothing or riding style signify a larger affective connections, combinations of emotional attitudes and capacities for action. Using interviews, I show how these patterns form an affective taxonomy that describes how different modes of experience and capacities sort bicyclists. Finally, I look at how affective difference relates to current planning policies that attempt to appeal to new riders. As decision makers have begun to recognize the limitations of traditional bicycle planning, they are experimenting with design and policy approaches aimed at diversifying the affective range of bicyclists, for example, bicycle boulevards, “open streets” events, and bike share systems Yet in practice, while these approaches circumvent automobility logics in specific ways, they remain limited by both political and institutional constraints, and the affective assumptions made by advocates.
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    Phase Resolved Infrared Imaging and Spectroscopy of Phonon Modes in A Wide-Bandgap Epitaxial Semiconductor
    (2023) MacDonald, Shane
    In this thesis, the novel design of a Phase-Resolved Infrared Spectroscopy Microscope (PRISM) was described and constructed, then demonstrated to have an imaging spatial resolution of ~ 7.6 μm. The PRISM was placed within an asymmetric Michelson-based interferometer which allowed for pseudoheterodyne detection as well as Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) of infrared reflection on a sample. Using PRISM, experimental data was collected consisting of reflectance images and spectroscopy of IR-active optical phonon modes in the tetragonal and orthorhombic phases of an epitaxial strontium stannate (SSO) sample at different incident light polarizations. The analysis and fitting process to determine the permittivity of the substrate and SSO thin film was then described and implemented. The analysis yielded the permittivity of the SSO film in the tetragonal and orthorhombic phases, providing new insight into the mobility-limiting phonon modes of epitaxial SSO.
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    Shared-Use Mobility Possibilities in Brooklyn Park: Existing Models
    (Resilient Communities Project (RCP), University of Minnesota, 2016) Hartle, Ashley; Goodwin, Matthew; Kays, Brian; Bauer, Eric; Hanson, Luke; Young, Allen
    This project was completed as part of the 2016-2017 Resilient Communities Project (rcp.umn.edu) partnership with the City of Brooklyn Park. The Blue Line Light Rail extension is expected to reach Brooklyn Park by 2021. Brooklyn Park wanted to investigate shared-use mobility as a means of expanding access to light rail for those without regular access to a personal automobile. The goal of this project was to investigate successful models for shared-use mobility in other cities in the United States. Brooklyn Park project lead Emily Carr worked with a team of students in PA 5232/CEGE 5212: Transportation Policy, Planning, and Development, to gather information on existing models of shared-use mobility and how those models apply to Brooklyn Park. The students' final report and presentation are available.
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    Shared-Use Mobility Possibilities in Brooklyn Park: Firsthand Accounts of Unmet Transportation Needs
    (Resilient Communities Project (RCP), University of Minnesota, 2016) Howard, Kurt; Lou, Shengnan; Lubben, Daniel; Pansch, Joshua; Xiong, Faith
    This project was completed as part of the 2016-2017 Resilient Communities Project (rcp.umn.edu) partnership with the City of Brooklyn Park. The Blue Line Light Rail extension is expected to reach Brooklyn Park by 2021. Brooklyn Park wanted to investigate shared-use mobility as a means of expanding access to light rail for those without regular access to a personal automobile. The goal of this project was to develop an engagement strategy around transportation access. Brooklyn Park project lead Emily Carr worked with a team of students in PA 5232/CEGE 5212: Transportation Policy, Planning, and Development, who conducted intercept surveys with residents at a local farmers' market and a community transportation center to learn about transportation barriers they face in Brooklyn Park. The students' final report and presentation are available.
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    Shared-Use Mobility Possibilities in Brooklyn Park: Public Data
    (Resilient Communities Project (RCP), University of Minnesota, 2016) Hayford Oleary, Sean; Lampe, Joseph; Osendorf, Tara; Wardoku, Maria; Bai, Shunhua; Howard, Kurt
    This project was completed as part of the 2016-2017 Resilient Communities Project (rcp.umn.edu) partnership with the City of Brooklyn Park. The Blue Line Light Rail extension is expected to reach Brooklyn Park by 2021. Brooklyn Park wanted to investigate shared-use mobility as a means of expanding access to light rail for those without regular access to a personal automobile. The goal of this project was to determine current public transit usage, potential bicycle and pedestrian routes, and access to credit cards and smart phones, both of which are necessary to use many shared-use mobility options. Brooklyn Park project lead Emily Carr worked with a team of students in PA 5232/CEGE 5212: Transportation Policy, Planning, and Development, who developed an interactive website, report, and presentation for Brooklyn Park outlining current conditions in the city. The students' final report and presentation are available.
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    The View from the Road: Tourist Routes and the Transformation of Scenic Vision in Western Norway
    (2012-05) Tvedten, Kristian
    This paper explores how Norway’s National Tourist Routes are emblematic of the ways in which scenic landscapes are appropriated and patterned on a historical model of visual distinction. By privileging scenic vision above other interactions, these travel routes profoundly shape our aesthetic responses to the landscape. The paper explores the many dimensions of the Norwegian landscape through readings of travel literature and visual art and the ways in which these cultural forms come have evolved and transformed scenic tourism in Western Norway.