blog
April 2024
Children / Cycling Education / Mobility
Angela van der Kloof featured in New Book: The City at Eye Level for Kids
This June Stipo launched their newest book, The City at Eye Level for Kids, at Placemaking Week Europe 2019 in Valencia. The publication includes a number of studies, programs, case studies and personal stories from professionals and advocates around the world. A follow up to their previous version, The City at Eye Level, it is focused on the experience of children and their caregivers in the city and the role they should be playing in city-making. So often, spaces are designed from the eye of adults. The City at Eye Level for Kids combines the perspectives of children and parents to shine a light on how urban spaces are experienced at a variety of levels.
Our own Angela van der Kloof took a step back from her professional role and PhD studies to share her experiences as a mother raising children on two wheels in the Netherlands. “The fresh air in my face and the feeling of independence! There are no words that can describe how I felt when I biked with my baby boy for the first time,” she recounts in her opening line. Angela’s story is a journey through parenthood from the saddle of a bicycle, and the inherent freedom felt not just by her but also her children and is a beautiful short story of discovery.
Angela has long been focused on equity in the experience of public spaces. Currently she is conducting PhD research exploring how the social infrastructure in the Netherlands forms and sustains cycling knowledge of children and elderly. Because little is known about cycling knowledge and its formation, Angela will use her research to inform how cycling knowledge, or lack of, can ultimately contribute to “mobility biographies”.
The City at Eye Level for Kids is available for hard-copy pre-order and e-book download now. Read Angela’s full story – and other global cycling stories – and get a glimpse into what growing up by bicycle in the Netherlands is like!