Day 1: Context and History
Meet your peers and instructors, dive into the history of mobility in Amsterdam, then hop on your bike and explore the city in groups while completing a scavenger hunt. Study movement, interact with the city, interview locals and tourists, then get to know your peers by discussing your first impressions in a relaxed environment.
Day 2: Field Observation and Urban Planning
Observe people moving fast and slow during rush hour, understanding how the city works and how people interact with each other in public space, then reflect and discuss urban planning through the lens of cycling. Conduct a case study in a specific neighborhood of the city to understand what this location can tell you about cities and change.
Day 3: Cycling and Public Health
Meet with the Cycling Professor and present to your peers some of the challenges and solutions from your own context. Discuss the role of cycling and mobility when it comes to public health, then go on a tour of the city through the presentations of the different case studies conducted the day before.
Day 4: Urban Peripheries and Marginalized Communities
Explore the rural and peri-urban areas of Amsterdam to experience cycling outside of the city, then go down the rabbit hole of feminist planning and mobilities of care. Visit other emblematic neighborhoods to understand how the city’s mobility needs have shaped it, and end the day with a celebratory group dinner.
Day 5: Transfer of Knowledge and Personal Outcomes
Interview a celebrity of the field and ask your burning questions. Discuss the course takeaways, then define your 3 key actions to take home and present your implementation strategy.
This curriculum is preliminary and may evolve in the coming weeks.
Learning Objectives
By the end of the program, participants will be equipped to:
- Identify key social, political, historical, and cultural events shaping mobility in cities, by learning from the Dutch example
- Understand how urban mobility is connected to a myriad of other fields, even if that connection is not obvious at first glance
- Apply the lens of cycling to interpret and address other problems in their local context
- Conduct on-site research in a living lab, to understand how people move around the city and what shapes their behavior and choices
- Communicate findings to a diverse group of actors, maximizing their potential for leadership
- Develop an action plan and become a leader for the mobility transition, leveraging our ever-growing network of academics and professionals in the field
