*Dates and prices are tentative and subject to change, and will be finalised by 1 December 2020. 

This course follows a flipped classroom approach in which Amsterdam is both a story board and a lab. Experience and experiential learning are key components of the course. Students are encouraged to independently explore and examine the city through the lens of the learning material; to get inspiration, to struggle with concepts or to “translate lessons" to their local context.

The course includes intimate discussions with the absolute leaders in fields ranging from sociology to transport engineering, and including influential academics and practitioners. To develop a rich understanding of a cycling city students engage in fieldwork, excursions, small group discussions and course projects. Seminal and recent contributions to the relevant literature are discussed throughout the course.

The programme will cover topics as diverse as urban cycling (historical and current trends), power relations in policy, strategic planning at different scales, land use, streams and wayfinding, bicycle culture and effects, data collection and measurement, and marketing as a policy instrument.

Participants in this summer programme will also receive a bicycle included in their academic fees. These are true "Dutch bikes" and are simple and effective for commuting throughout Amsterdam, and for the adventurous, beyond on the Netherlands' enormous integrated network of bicyle paths, highways, and infrastructure. 

George Liu (MSc) is a researcher, educator, and consultant in urban mobility and in 2020, will be the acting Academic Director of the Planning the Cycling City programme. He specializes in online education, presenting weekly academic paper reviews on the Urban Cycling Institute's YouTube channel and helped create the world's first academic cycling Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) at the University of Amsterdam. His research investigates the experience of cycling and exploring how ideas from urban design can guide the creation of healthy and attractive environments that encourage cycling as a practical and delightful mode of daily transportation. His previous research at the University of Toronto includes a study of cycling patterns in the suburban communities. George is cross-appointed at the Department of the Built Environment at the Eindhoven University of Technology. Fun fact: George plays trombone with the Bicycle Showband Crescendo, the only mounted band of its kind in the world!

Meredith Glaser (MSc) is an urban strategy and mobility consultant, based in the Netherlands since 2012, and Academic Director of the Planning the Cycling programme. She is originally from California, holds Masters degrees in urban planning and public health from UC Berkeley. Meredith holds a guest appointment at the University of Amsterdam, where she co-leads this summer programme and conducts research on cross-national policy transfer and knowledge exchange related to cycling and mobility. She hosts other university-level student groups and international professional delegations for cycling and mobility study tours. Meredith regularly collaborates with local Dutch municipalities and universities on cycling projects and workshops. She lives in Amsterdam with her family, 4 bikes and no car.

Prof. Dr. Marco te Brömmelstroet currently holds the position of Associate Professor in Urban Planning at the University of Amsterdam, and is Academic Director of the Planning the Cycling City programme. His teaching in Planning Bachelor and Master's programmes centers around the (problematic) integration of land use and mobility and ways to improve this. His research is strongly intertwined with planning practice. He has done several studies on how to improve the use of knowledge in urban strategy making processes. Recently, he extended his curiosity into the role of the bicycle in the functioning of cities and vice versa. Not a coincidence; he covers around 5.000 kilometer annually as a bicycle commuter in Amsterdam, 7.000 kilometer on his racing and touring bikes and he owns a cargo-bicycle shop in Germany. He tries to combine a fanatic advocacy attitude towards cycling in cities with a healthy distant view as academic researcher.

Want to get to know more about studying in Amsterdam? Follow us on social media and join our summer community. Get a feel for our summer school vibe and our academic and social community, and learn about studying with us through the eyes of past summer school students. 

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Looking for an alumni perspective? Read this interview with Patrick Morgan, who attended Planning the Cycling in 2019. 

You can also hear more about the history and culture of cycling in the Netherlands from our Academic Directors George and Marco on our podcast Mokum.