Creating an Aspirational Cycling Experience for Post-Oil Shanghai by Introducing Social Cycling and the Persuasive Electric Vehicle

Challenge:

With a raising middle-class, China is gearing up in car ownership and biking is becoming unpopular because it indicates a lower level of status. This presents challenges for the city. How can we make cycling the mode of choice?

Process:

Sandra was selected as a teaching assistant and team leader for the Mobility Group of the Livinglabs class at the MIT Media Lab. As an expert on behavior change, cycling and branding, she gave the team input on mobility-on-demand and organized the group’s strategy. During a design charette in Shanghai, which focused on various focus fields of Post-Oil Shanghai, she supported the group and functioned as the spokesperson. In this capacity, she helped to organize with other teams of the Media Lab as well as with students from Tongji University and Aalto University (Finland), the creation of a future vision of Post-Oil Shanghai.

Solution:

Sandra and her team propose a car-free zone on the selected site. The implementation of a bike-sharing program with designer bikes creates an aspirational experience for city dwellers. The bikes incorporate technology-enabled social features, like the social handlebar, which allows users to publish their location and to meet up with friends.