An alternative for whom? Buenos Aires' school commuting and the “bicycle boom” in pandemic time

Abstract

This chapter discusses the bicycle boom in Buenos Aires during the pandemic to analyse new cycling practices as alternative mobility. In the last 2 years, there has been a significant increase in the use of bicycles, followed by the growth of infrastructure in the city as an effect of the sanitary policies to face COVID-19. The restriction on public transport pushed the use of various modes of private transport such as cars, bikes, and motorbikes. Based on daily observations of cycle paths, this study highlights transformations of a particular type of daily mobility: moving to school, especially how parents carry their young children on bikes. Transporting kids on bicycle has become more visible and it can be done in a number of ways intersected with skills, social class, gender, among other factors. Here, the word ?alternative? means situations such as improvisation, creativity, scarcity, necessity, and urgency showing that people can use bikes in different ways. We argue that cycling emerged as an alternative to public transport that was considered a risky environment for the spread of the disease. Although it is valued as a form of sustainable mobility, actual practices face uneven mobilities, including risks for children. However, they render interesting socio-technological configurations and social relations regarding how we move in relation to objects and passengering.