Projects

Delivering Justice Project: In collaboration with the Biking Public Project, we are creating a participatory action research (PAR) project with immigrant food delivery cyclists in New York City (NYC). Typically, food delivery cyclists who are often Asian and Latino immigrants in NYC have been left outside the bike advocacy movement while being depicted by the public and news media as the ‘bad’ cyclists who break traffic rules and thus subject to increased surveillance and policing. The rapid expansion of the bike infrastructure of New York City has not accounted for the needs and lived experiences of immigrant cyclists and thus, we plan to illuminate the bicycling experiences and knowledge of immigrant food delivery cyclists to inform more equitable bike planning and policing. This research project aims to support food delivery cyclists by partnering with them to characterize abuses, create counter-narratives, and generate actions to improve labor and street conditions. The need to engage immigrant food delivery workers is underscored by recent efforts to raise the minimum wage, the city’s Vision Zero street safety initiative, and national discussions about equity and opportunity.

Lake Tahoe Bike to Work Study: In 2012, I investigated the process of how first time bicyclists to work change their long-term commuting behaviors through the experience of the Bike to Work event in Lake Tahoe. This research explored the changes in the individual, social and environmental affordances perceived by an individual and how the social and environmental contexts interact with the individual experience. This research used methods of participant observations, interviews, video observations, and surveys. See below for the published article on this research.

Publications

Lee, D., Ho, H., Banks, M., Giampieri, M., Chen, X., & Le, D. (2016). Delivering (in)justice: Food delivery cyclists in New York City. In A. Golub, M. Hoffmann, A. Lugo & G. Sandoval (Eds.), Bicycle Justice and Urban Transformation: Biking for all? Routledge. Links to the book and paper.

Lee, D. J. (August 19, 2015). Embodied bicycle commuters in a car world. Social & Cultural Geography, 17, 3, 401-422. Links to published article and open-access version.

Lee, D. (2014). The Unbearable Weight of Irresponsibility and the Lightness of Tumbleweeds: Cumulative Irresponsibility in Neoliberal Streetscapes. In Julian Agyeman & Stephen Zavestoski (Eds.), Incomplete Streets (pp. 77-93). New York: Routledge. Links to the book & paper.

Dissertation

Lee, D. J. (2018). Delivering Justice: Food Delivery Cyclists in New York City (Doctoral Dissertation). The Graduate Center of the City University of New York, New York. Link to dissertation.