Understanding Lived Experience of urban Cycling in Tehran (A Collaborative Auto-ethnography)

There have been numerous studies conducted in urban studies dealing with the issue of pedestrians’ collective life. However, there is a dramatic scarcity of the research on bicycling, most of which have focused on the subjects of traffic engineering, urban planning, policies and health. Few studies have taken the subjects of social sciences and urban anthropology. In addition, the majority of research on cycling have produced a largely quantitative methodological tool kit. The studies which are based on quantitative and positivistic approaches, have exclusively dealt with the contextual-spatial responses of the cyclists, including the design of the routes, the physical features, and so forth. The study of the lived experience of the cyclists in cities has been, therefore, essentially neglected. The present study, as a qualitative research, relies on auto-ethnography, to investigate the lived experience of the author, in the city of Tehran (as a car-dominated city). The current research paper illustrates the lived experience of cycling in Tehran under six primary topics (Represented Space versus Spatial Representations, Personalized City versus External Urban Network; Roaming on the Saddle; I Pedal, Therefore I Am; Triangle Phenomenon; Power Space and Spatial Resistances). The research concepts are elicited from my auto-ethnographical essays by implementing four existential life worlds: lived space (spatiality), lived body (corporeality), lived time (temporality), and lived relations (relationally).