Avi Parsha, a master’s student in the Faculty’s Urban and Regional Planning Program and a researcher in the Fair Transport Lab, explores how social identity affects the perception of cycling as a mode of transport among women from different income levels. Using the case study of Tel-Aviv-Jaffa, Avi found that as cycling for transport is highly-associated with privileged social groups and not as a practice that ‘everybody does’, underprivileged social groups are less likely to take up cycling, as they typically do not identify with these social categories. These findings suggest that social identity may play a significant role in shaping cycling uptake among various social groups and that cycling promotion should go beyond the provision of cycling infrastructure and include strategies to normalize cycling as a ‘socially-neutral’ practice that ‘everybody does’.

The presentation slides are available here.

Fore more information please contact Avi Parsha, +972-52-3935724, aviparsha@gmail.com