Search

Slower speed limits and regulated passing distances between motor vehicles and bicycles are now taken-for-granted in policies aimed at increasing cycling participation rates by addressing safety concerns in societies dominated by cars. Rather than understanding distance as a measurement between two points, this paper addresses the sensibilities of proximity. This paper draws on the work of Deleuze and Guattari and the related concepts of assemblage, territory and critical distance, to better understand how subjectivities emerge through sensations of proximity-in-motion while riding a bike. Attention turns to how experiences of risk underpin an encroachment on personal space that transforms the affective capacities of cycling bodies to ride specific routes along roads, footpaths and cycleways. The article engages with the situated cycling experiences of 28 individuals who ride for leisure and/or transport, who consented to participate in a cycling sensory ethnography in the small city of Wollongong, Australia. Greater appreciation of how sensations of antagonism triggered by proximity-in-cycling-motion, work to reinforce or challenge subjectivities may offer insights to improve actual and perceived safety for cyclists beyond fixed distance policy concepts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An important task of mobility scholars is to attend to how time and space are generated through mobilities. Building upon research inspired by Deleuze and Guattari that foregrounds experiential mobilities, we use the notion of the refrain to chart experiences of long-distance rail commuting with a particular focus on how these journeys are crafted to be productive. Moreover, we consider a series of interruptions and their transformative potential. We read wanted and unwanted interruptions as breaks in the consistency of a refrain – disruptions to the socio-material, affective, and expressive arrangements that constitute a sense of productivity. We submit that in the wake of interruption, a refrain may dissolve or reform in three different ways: as repeat, as variation, or as developing variation. These categorisations help us to understand the differential influence of interruption on a refrain. We illustrate our argument by drawing on ethnographic research conducted with 16 mobile commuters who regularly journey by train for work between Wollongong and Sydney (Australia) – a trip of at least 90 minutes each way along a key commuting corridor. Through building an account of long-distance commuting, this article provides insights into how productivity (and productive subjects) may manifest through mundane activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]