Feelings & People
Updated: Aug 19, 2022
How do you feel while riding a bike?
Our emotions play a major factor in how we choose to get around, yet they are often discounted by transportation planners that are focused on numbers and travel models.
Bicycle User Experience (BUX) hopes to help fill this gap and make everyday biking a reality by taking insights from User Experience Design, Usability, Service Design, and Human Centered Design, and applying them to street design. By studying people and following methodologies from the aforementioned fields, we can bring people back to the center of the conversation on street design and make streets that fit their needs, feelings and desires.
BUX also aims to contribute to the reframing of bike planning from a political subject to one that is about enhancing the lives of all community members and solving problems. Creating a livable environment where everyone chooses to ride a bike for their everyday needs is a tool for more enjoyable, healthy, social, and economically and environmentally viable cities and towns.
So, how might bikeways actually be like if designers put everyday people at the center? When bike planning is framed this way, the profession becomes just as much about everyday people as it is about bikes. That means professionals need to learn about people and make biking work for them. The challenge becomes fitting the bike seamlessly into their lives and making them feel comfortable, satisfied, and at-ease.
Returning to the existing conditions: How do you feel while riding a bike? And with that in mind, how would you like to feel?
What if riding a bike on your city/town's streets was intuitive and easy? How would you like the bike facilities to be?
What feelings drive you away from riding a bike? For example, how do you feel riding on a high speed road with massive motor vehicles barreling by you?
Want to learn how to design streets for a better user experience? We offer a variety of online and in-person courses. Is your organization interested in utilizing this approach? Check out what we offer to help you make the transformation.