The Production of New Mobilities

Car-dependent cities like Los Angeles (CA), Tempe (AZ), or Paris (France) are making massive efforts to develop public transit and bicycling infrastructure. Meanwhile, car dependence grows fast in most cities around the world. This research experience explores how cities are changing the way people move around, and the effects on urban equity and livability. Each cohort focuses on a different city. The Summer 2024 cohort will study Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam), where cars are rapidly displacing motorbikes, the dominant transportation mode. The students will use a framework called “the production of new mobilities” to guide the research. This framework looks at three dimensions: the plans and policies made by governments (conceived space), how people experience moving around using different modes (perceived space), and how some people, such as street vendors, use transportation spaces to support activities other than mobility (lived space). Students will analyze a rich dataset including transportation plans, newspaper articles, interview transcripts, travel survey data, and video recordings of the streets. All data will be provided by the instructor. Students will analyze the data using a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods. They will refine and further develop analytical skills using Excel, Stata, NVivo, and ArcGis.

This is a course-based experiences offered in summer B session as PUP 394.