Disabled cyclists in England: imagery in policy and design

A new article from Kevin Hickman of Wheels for Wellbeing (who is also on the Cycling Embassy board) has been published in Urban Design and Planning, a journal of the Institution of Civil Engineers.

Kevin's paper looks at the imagery of cycling – specifically disabled cycling – and how it is represented in cycling policy and design guidance, containing an analysis of the imagery in recent documents.

Electric-assist trike

Of the 358 images of cycles in these documents, only 12 were not of conventional bicycles, and none was of cycles associated with disability.

The paper also looks at the variety of cycles available for disabled users, and the design requirements for them, including tricycles, handcycles, recumbents, and electrically-assisted tricycles (pictured) and handcycles.

Representing the different types of cycles available for disabled users more regularly in policy and guidance documents will make the need for recommended minimum design parameters more obvious to practitioners.

You can read Kevin's paper here.