VELOCARE: new research project on women's vélomobility in Tallinn

Doing some "auto-ethnographic" work with my little co-traveler. Summer 2023

In February 2025, after 15 years in Spain, I moved back to my native Tallinn to start a new research project on care mobilities. The project's full title is Affective Vélomobilities of Care: a Gender-Sensitive Approach to Sustainable Mobility. I will be referring to it simply as VELOCARE.

The project has a duration of two years during which I will be looking at the mobility of 20 women who regularly use a bicycle to transport their children across the city. Beyond questions about the availability of suitable infrastructure and access to bicycle technologies, VELOCARE is interested in the affective aspects of co-cycling and how the sensory environment influences women’s cycling experiences. This means that I will be looking at the ways that women cyclists interact with their co-travelers as well as with the urban environment to discuss how this constitutes their relationship with the city and how it could further encourage cycling uptake.

The project is currently under review at the Ethics Committee of Tallinn University and once I receive the green light I will be able to share more bits and pieces of the methodology that I will be applying together with the call for participants.