BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//pretalx//pretalx.com//crbam-2026//speaker//DCGJTU BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:Europe/Amsterdam BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20250917T000000 TZNAME:CEST TZOFFSETFROM:+0200 TZOFFSETTO:+0200 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD DTSTART:20251026T030000 RDATE:20261025T030000 TZNAME:CET TZOFFSETFROM:+0200 TZOFFSETTO:+0100 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20260329T030000 RDATE:20270328T030000 TZNAME:CEST TZOFFSETFROM:+0100 TZOFFSETTO:+0200 END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Symbolic Cycling\, Persistent Automobility: Infrastructural Hypocr isy in Wroclaw - Anastasiia Zhokhova DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Amsterdam:20260917T131600 DTEND;TZID=Europe/Amsterdam:20260917T134100 DTSTAMP:20260918T121422Z UID:pretalx-crbam-2026-JE93PA@pretalx.com DESCRIPTION:Poland has high levels of bicycle ownership — according to G US data (2021) around 79% of households own at least one bicycle and up to 80% of adults report cycling occasionally\, and in recent surveys\, aroun d 89 % of respondents report owning a bike\, suggesting that material capa city for cycling is widespread in Poland [1\,2]. Yet everyday cycling rema ins marginal within urban mobility systems.\nThis paradox raises a critica l question: how can cycling be materially present yet politically and cult urally subordinate — and what forms of unused potential does this condit ion conceal?\n\nIn Wroclaw — a city that around a decade ago was conside red one of Poland’s leaders in cycling infrastructure development\, but has since lost this pioneering position — visible investments coexist wi th persistent structural imbalances. Although the city recently reappeared relatively high in the Copenhagenize Index ranking (Copenhagenize Design Company) [3]\, such external recognition does not fully capture the more c omplex local reality. It does not necessarily reflect concerns raised by N GOs and cycling advocates\, the depth of political debate\, or the degree of alignment between strategic commitments and their implementation [4–7 ]. While Wroclaw provides the primary lens of analysis\, the patterns obse rved here resonate with broader dynamics present across many Polish cities and\, potentially\, other Central and Eastern European contexts — conte xts where significant material capacity for cycling exists\, yet remains o nly partially activated. Recent mobility data from Wroclaw illustrate this imbalance clearly: motorised mobility accounts for nearly 40% of daily tr ips (39.8%) and increased by 26% between 2018 and 2024\, while bicycle mob ility represents less than 5% (4.7%) and declined by around 2% over the sa me period\, alongside negative dynamics in public transport use — despit e the construction of new cycling corridors and tram–bus routes during t hese years [5–7].\n\nCycling is widely framed\, by both citizens and dec ision-makers\, as leisure rather than legitimate everyday transport. This perception becomes particularly visible on weekends\, when cycling infrast ructure — especially along recreational corridors such as riverside rout es — is intensively used by families and leisure riders. At the same tim e\, many residents transport bicycles by car to regional cycling paths\, n ational parks\, or mountainous areas\, reinforcing associations of cycling with nature and recreation rather than daily mobility. National surveys a lso reflect that recreational riding through parks and non-street environm ents dominates cycling practices\, with over half of respondents identifyi ng leisure as their primary motivation [1]. The typology of commonly used bicycles further suggests predominantly recreational use (the national sur vey indicates 1/3 cyclists using mountain bikes) [1]. Seasonality deepens this pattern: limited winter maintenance of cycling infrastructure and a s ignificant decrease in winter cycling volumes reflect a perception of cycl ing as a fair-weather activity rather than a year-round transport mode. Na tionwide data confirm that most cyclists ride primarily in warmer months\, reinforcing the perception of cycling as a seasonal activity [1].\n\nI pr opose the concept of “infrastructural hypocrisy” to describe the tensi on between symbolic endorsement of cycling and the material reproduction o f automobility. Rather than evaluating progress primarily through the impl ementation of planned investments or the number of kilometres of cycling p aths constructed\, this approach seeks to capture the problem in a more co mplex and systemic way. It shifts attention from quantitative expansion to qualitative\, relational\, and institutional dimensions of how cycling is embedded — or marginalised — within urban space\, and how this margin alisation constrains its transformative potential.\n\nThis imbalance becom es visible in:\n\n• the accessibility and spread of car parking compared to bicycle parking (for example\, often producing everyday situations in which finding a legal parking space for a bicycle in the city centre is mo re difficult than parking a car)\;\n• the quantity\, typology\, quality \, and standards-compliance [8] of cycling infrastructure within both stre et design and new housing\, commercial\, and cultural developments\;\n• the factual priorities and compromises embedded in street design decisions \;\n• the continuity\, usability\, and maintenance prioritisation of cyc ling networks\, including winter service standards\;\n• the absence of s ystemic integration despite strategic declarations\;\n• the educational gap reflected in the marginal treatment of cycling as a mobility mode and cycling infrastructure planning within urban planning curricula\;\n• etc .\n\nImportantly\, the typology and quality of implemented solutions — i ncluding their compliance (or in some cases lack thereof) with existing st andards and recommendations — often unconsciously reveal deeper prioriti es. They reflect prevailing perceptions of cycling not as a full-fledged a nd equal transport mode\, but as marginal or recreational\, and of cyclist s as secondary users of public space. In one study\, nearly 59 % of cyclis ts assessed local infrastructure quality as poor or very poor\, suggesting a qualitative gap beyond mere kilometres of paths [1].\n\nRather than int erpreting these patterns as a simple implementation deficit\, this contrib ution invites discussion of infrastructural hypocrisy as a structural cond ition shaping mobility transitions in post-socialist contexts\, where the material foundations for change may already exist but remain politically a nd culturally underutilised.\n\nThe session will explore four open questio ns:\n\n1. How do cultural perceptions of cycling shape infrastructural inv estment and spatial justice?\n2. Can high bicycle ownership be understood as latent but unused transformative capacity?\n3. How can infrastructural hypocrisy be analytically assessed beyond conventional infrastructure metr ics?\n4. How might this phenomenon be addressed in policy\, planning educa tion\, and governance\, and what broader lessons might it offer in global debates on cycling transitions?\n\nBy situating Wroclaw as both a specific case and a representative example of wider regional dynamics\, this contr ibution invites interdisciplinary dialogue on how cultural narratives\, in stitutional practices\, and street design interact to shape unrealised mob ility potential.\n\n1. Raport 2025: Jak Polacy jeżdżą na rowerach? | C entrumRowerowe.pl Available online: https://www.centrumrowerowe.pl/blog/ra port-2025-jak-polacy-jezdza-na-rowerach/.\n2. Radziwonowski\, G. Ilu wła ściwie jeździ ludzi na rowerze w Polsce? Available online: https://magaz ynbike.pl/2025/09/01/ilu-jezdzi-ludzi-na-rowerze-w-polsce/.\n3. Wroclaw – Copenhagenize index Available online: https://copenhagenizeindex.eu/in dex.php/project/wroclaw/.\n4. Historia działań prorowerowych Available online: https://rowerowy.wroclaw.pl/historia-dzialan-prorowerowych/.\n5. Wrocław Się Liczy - Kompleksowe Badania Ruchu - Wrocław i Otoczenie 202 4 Available online: https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/wroclaw-sie-liczy -kompleksowe-badania-ruchu-wroclaw-i-otoczenie-2024/273800383.\n6. Komple ksowe Badania Ruchu We Wrocławiu i Otoczeniu - KBR 2024 - Kompleksowe Bad ania Ruchu - Biuletyn Informacji Publicznej Urzędu Miejskiego Wrocławia Available online: https://bip.um.wroc.pl/artykul/565/70659/kompleksowe-bad ania-ruchu-we-wroclawiu-i-otoczeniu-kbr-2024.\n7. Perzanowski\, M. Bez au ta we Wrocławiu ani rusz. Niechętnie jeździmy rowerem\, komunikacją – bez zmian. Znamy wyniki Kompleksowego Badania Ruchu 2024 Available onl ine: https://gazetawroclawska.pl/bez-auta-we-wroclawiu-ani-rusz-niechetnie -jezdzimy-rowerem-komunikacja-bez-zmian-znamy-wyniki-kompleksowego-badania -ruchu-2024/ar/c1p2-27053231.\n8. Standardy Techniczne Infrastruktury Row erowej Available online: https://www.irt.wroc.pl/pliki/standardy_techniczn e_infrastruktury_rowerowej_2021/index.html. LOCATION:Plenary room (Lecture Room 2.2) URL:https://pretalx.com/crbam-2026/talk/JE93PA/ END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR