History Professor, Dr. Ross Bassett, Teaches New STS Course on Urban Bicycle Transportation.
Last fall, Professor Ross Bassett taught the new course, STS320 Cycling Cities: STS, the Bicycle and Urban Transportation to 60 NCSU students. The course used the interdisciplinary methodology of Science and Technology Studies to look at why urban Americans do not bicycle to the same extent as urban Europeans. It looked at the history of streets in America, which once had been seen as a commons, available to a variety of users, but then were transformed into the exclusive domain of motorists. It also looked at how the Netherlands had been following a US car-centric model in the years after World War II, but through the work of citizen activists, took a different path.
Students interacted with a group of thirty German students on campus to compare ideas about urban transportation. Some of the leading figures in developing bike infrastructure in the United States have associations with NCSU and a number of them spoke to the class. We also heard from local bike activists.
This was a “Think and Do” course, where students went out and performed bike audits examining the “bike friendliness” of various routes in the Raleigh area, and then presented them before the board members of Oaks and Spokes, Raleigh’s bicycle advocacy group. One student got an internship through the course. At their request, Professor Bassett spoke to two members of the Raleigh City Council to discuss the course and the bicycling environment in Raleigh.
A Computer Science major said this about the course, “Taking STS 320 really helped me become a more independent thinker and has influenced how I approach urban development and sustainability. It opened my eyes to the societal constructs, like motor normativity, that shape our view of cars as an essential part of everyday life. The knowledge I gained in the class is deeply embedded in my perspective and continues to shape how I make decisions in my daily life.”
STS320 will be offered again in Spring 2026.
