Bicycle commuting in an automobile-dominated city: how individuals become and remain bike commuters in Charlotte, North Carolina

In Charlotte, North Carolina less than one half of 1% of commuters ride a bicycle to work despite several decades of public investment in bicycle infrastructure and planning. Like many fast-growing cities of North America, Charlotte’s rapid physical growth in the past half-century has left its residents little option but to navigate the city by car. To date, research on utility cycling has paid relatively little attention to the practice of bicycle commuting in auto-dominated cities. This article uses grounded theory methodology to build a context- and time-sensitive explanation of how individuals adopt and sustain the practice of bicycle commuting in Charlotte. Through interviews with 26 Charlotte-area bicycle commuters—20 men and 6 women, mean age 40.3—, we find that, according to subjects interviewed, initiating and sustaining the practice of bicycle commuting involves the renegotiation of relationships between the cyclist and (1) the bicycle, (2) other local cyclists, (3) urban space, and (4) the workplace. Dynamics in these relationships are overlapping and simultaneous. This time- and context-sensitive explanation broadens the array of policy interventions that complement the infrastructure-centered approach to promoting cycling in Charlotte today. Elected officials, planners, and bicycle advocates stand to benefit by understanding the transition to cycling as a process of social learning that exposes individuals interested in bicycle commuting to less hostile “neighborhood” thoroughfares.