Riding Smarter Than Car

2010 -
Team: Smarter Than Car
Partners: various

Our rides follow various purposes – experiencing, connecting, networking, exploring, imagining, enjoying – all while moving in a self-propelled way through the urban realm. 

From the back of the bicycle we connect, with the city, with each other, with new ideas and possible futures. 

Smarter Than Car has hosted a multitude of diverse rides with various partners. We see such rides as creative ways to engage with the city, with new people and with other organisations. See some of our current and favourite rides below. 

Connect to our Social Media channels to find out about our next rides! 

2020
Team: Francesco Remonato, Georg Wieser, Florian Lorenz, Martin Lorenz 
Partners: Platz für Wien, Fridays for Future Vienna, Radlobby Österreich

In this series of rides we documented uncomfortable situations for urban cycling in Vienna. 

Bad infrastructure creates problems for people cycling and prevents people from using bicycles for mobility. If the share of cyclists should rise, infrastructure needs to enable comfortable cycling, not render cycling an adventure!

2019
Team: Francesco Remonato, Georg Wieser
Partners: Radlobby Österreich, City of Vienna – MA18

The ride visited high quality - actually public - spaces in Vienna, which are instead exclusively used as parking spaces. Participants imgined how these spaces could be used otherwise and collected these ideas in a documentation.

2018
Team: Francesco Remonato, Georg Wieser, Florian Lorenz
Partners: BICYCLES exhibition, Nordbahnhalle, Fahrrad.Selbsthilfe.Werkstatt WUK, die Radvokaten/Alec Hager, Radlobby Österreich, Stape OG/Beatrice Stude, Initiative Lebenswertes Nordbahnviertel, 

A series of rides in cooperation with the BICYCLES exhibition exploring topics of Bicycle Urbanism in Vienna. 

We invite you to discover the city of Vienna by bike, to discuss topics of urban development and to network so that we can further develop Vienna with and for the bicycle! Steady cycling, discoveries and discourse on the saddle!

hybrid Landscapes

This time we experience hybrid landscapes in Vienna. Where "nature" and the city meet, where industry shapes landscapes, where Vienna does not look like St. Stephen's Cathedral, the Boys' Choir or the Fiaker.

decarbonizing vienna

Climate change is putting even a cozy city like Vienna to the test. To assume our responsibility in the global effort of climate change mitigation while adapting to preserve Vienna's quality of life in the long run, small and big efforts are needed to make Vienna free of fossil energy by the year 2050. Vienna's Danube Island - a megaproject of the 20th century to defy the forces of nature (floods) - should serve as our inspiration. What would a comparable megaproject look like today, dedicated to the challenge of climate change? And: Which many small measures can have a cumulative mega-impact? 

Imagineering Ciclovia vienna

A weekly Ciclovia - that would be something for Vienna, wouldn't it? Every Sunday, a whole network of streets, closed for motorized vehicles to be open for non-motorized movement and urban life. That would be something for one of the most livable cities in the world! More than a hundred cities already have Ciclovia-like events, every Sunday or every three months. How could a Ciclovia take place in Vienna? We'll discuss that on this ride!

2017
Team: Fancesco Remonato, Florian Lorenz 

A series of rides in Summer/Autumn 2017 to discuss urban issues in Vienna and connect people invested in changing the face of our cities.

This ride started at Vienna's refinery in Mannswörth exploring a mix of peri-urban conditions, infrastructure that is pushed to the edge of the city, natural and agricultural remainders, and, the oil industry's reality in Vienna.

2014
Team: Florian Lorenz, Joshua Grigsby
Partners: urbanize Festival c/o derive

A bicycle ride as a Bicycle Urbanism workshop within the Urbanize! Festival 2014 °°Safe City°°.

Safety is an undisputed quality of our urban spaces. But what qualities are we actually talking about in an urbanistic context? Which types of street, city or form of transport are safe, for whom and why? Which normative concepts of safety go hand in hand with this - mostly unquestioned? And: Are these concepts even accurate?

Smarter Than Car's Bicycle Urbanism workshop contextualizes streets as contested public spaces shaped by political as well as philosophical narratives and norms. The workshop explores the connections between different forms of transportation, street spaces, and urban populations, as well as their influence on different ways of thinking, building, and using them in relation to subjective perceptions of safety. Urban Realities? aims to stimulate thinking about how streets can be reframed, reimagined and reappropriated, and what role the bicycle can play in this process.

2014
Team: Florian Lorenz, Joshua Grigsby, Martin Lorenz
Partners: World Bike Forum

To kick-off preparations for the 4th World Bicycle Forum (Forum Mundial da Bicicleta) #FMB4 hosted two embassy rides swinging by several embassies to send a global message about urban cycling. 

Get your diplomatic cycling outfit ready and join in for a World Tour on your bicycle in one day!

2012
Team: Shannon Bufton, Liman Zhao
Partners: Danish Embassy Beijing

The Danish Embassy in Beijing partnered with STC to organize a "Climate Ride" promoting green transportation.

On occasion of the Danish EU Presidency in 2012 the Danish Embassy organised a ‘Climate Race’ in and outside Beijing to promote green transportation and solution and raise awareness of climate issues. The highlight was a one-day bike ride in and around Beijing with more than 150 participants from Danish companies, media, Chinese officials and other EU embassies.

2010
Team: Shannon Bufton, Ines Brunn
Partners: Natooke

A series of dedicated and activating rides for community building and promoting the bicycle life in Beijing.

more projects in the overview

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