BUX Network Meeting, July 2021
This idea of gathering professionals, activists and enthusiasts about cycling in one place to exchange ideas and turn the great potential into a useful action was originally brought up by one of the students from our course in Methods for a people-centered design process. It took us a while to decide how we can actually make it happen with all the diversity and time limits we had, and went through a prior iteration in 2020. But, we knew one thing for sure, cycling is our passion and we care about how we can better experience it. We designed an initial framework in BUX and invited people to join us. A few weeks later, we had an amazing group of professionals and activists from America to Europe to Australia interested and ready to meet for a greater impact!
Read more here: tinyurl.com/bux-network-info
Knowing members’ background
On July 30th, we came together in an online meeting to see each other for the first time, get to know each other’s backgrounds and cycling situation in our home cities. The session started with Hristina and me introducing the idea and giving some explanations on the goal of the meetings and the possible tools and resources BUX can provide for the group. Afterward, members started introducing themselves to the group and gave a little information about cycling experience in their home or residential cities. It was interesting to see the comparisons they made between different cities; looking like they were already noticing inefficiencies and had some hidden solutions in mind!
Stories were so enriching that we couldn’t stop anyone even though we had limited time! We were already noticing some global and some local challenges, ideas and potential solutions.
After hearing almost half of the group, we needed to move on to some logistical talks for the future! At this time, I was surprised to see members are already actively commenting for some ideas on how we can have a fruitful group discussion and imagination for the next steps. Trey then talked about methods and resources we can equip the group with, so there would be consistency in sessions, and Jacqui volunteered to present the first case in our next meeting.
My reflection
Although in the first session we didn’t dive into cases and discussions, I still felt like I had a quality time getting to know these people, their stories, enthusiasm and participation for future actions!
If you think you share the same passion for improving user experience in cycling in your city and want to join us for future meetings, please send us an email with a short explanation about how you find cycling experience and human perspective important, how your work is connected to cycling and a little about yourself. We will then contact you for further elaborations.