The present dissertation is developed under the basis that the un-targeted promotion of cycling, fails to increase gendered diversity in this mode of transport in the context of London. The research explores from a subjective approach the reasons behind the gender gap in cycling by looking into women’s personal experiences and intrinsic social conditions that make them prone to cycle, or on the contrary, constrain them from doing so. This dissertation is framed under Amartya Sen’s ‘Capability Approach’ (CA) (1984) as it recognises that individuals have different abilities or capabilities to carry out and activity, in this case, women's capabilities to cycle. The data was gathered through semi-structured interviews focused on women’s personal experience in cycling, and showed the social construction of gender influences how women perceive the action of riding a bicycle, and hence their ability to do so.

A growing recognition has addressed the benefits of cycling to both individuals and the city, accordingly arising interest globally in how to promote cycling in practice, by emulating premier experiences such as the Netherlands. Yet, this remains difficult in practice, because both the provision of cycling and cycling behaviour is grounded in place-specific context. This gap limits the understanding of subjectiveness when transferring cycling knowledge and policies, indicating that in-depth studies are immensely needed where discursive practice of practitioner’s viewpoint and cyclists’ experience are important elements to explore.Hence, using a leading exemplar in the Netherlands, the town of Houten, this study aims to examine why Houten manage to promote cycling. 18 in-depth interviews with practitioners and local cyclists are conducted as the main method to collect qualitative data. The language used by diverse actors is analysed drawn on the critical discourse analysis approach.It is proposed that first, the high-quality provision of cycling infrastructure along with related measures in Houten include 8 themes: segregated cycle network, intersection modifications, traffic calming, bike parking, integration with public transport, integration with the built environment, education and programmes, social and cultural norms. These perform as both ‘push’ and ‘pull’ measures to facilitate people cycling and discourage driving. Second, the implementation is contributed to a participatory process where the municipals, planning team, cyclist groups and residents together play active roles against the dominant car-centred narratives. Third, the high-quality provision and positive interference of governance benefit cyclists with pleasant experiences by meeting the travel need for a fast, coherent, safe and interesting journey, and the social need for mobility independence and social identity. The three aspects together gradually form a cultural identity of Houten as a bicycle city, and residents as well-behaved cyclists, hence consolidating and normalising cycling in terms of changing narratives.

A comparison study of routes with contrasting link infrastructure types was undertaken in Surrey, UK, which found evidence in support of the hypothesis that some types of link cycle infrastructure are better able to grow rates of cycling, contrary to UK cycling guidance.

This dissertation investigates social implications of built environment interventions (BEI) related to bicycle urbanism from a Spatial Justice (Soja, 2010) perspective. By combining urban spatial theory and mobilities research, the novel theoretical framework Mobility Space helps to analyse spatial, experiential and discursive aspects of urban mobility priorities concomitantly and is thus an adequate analytical tool to uncover how recently proliferating cycling strategies impact society through an alteration of urban space. A qualitative and multi-method research design combines descriptive mapping, virtual site observation and semi-structured interviews to apply Mobility Space to the controversial Mini-Holland programme in Waltham Forest, London. Examining in detail the Walthamstow Village scheme, the research finds three patterns by which BEI related to bicycle urbanism re-organize movement, re-allocate space and re-design public realm to prioritize active travel and dwelling while discouraging car use. Those spatial alterations shift the political organization of space which in turn affects the Right to the City (Lefebvre et al., 1996) – an expression of Spatial Justice – as it enables a greater diversity of people to use urban space (right to appropriation) and makes them conscious how the space they inhabit is discursively produced and the outcome of contentious decision-making processes (right to participation). This research is relevant for urban professionals as environmental as well as pandemic-related urban mobility challenges necessitate a transformation of urban space to accommodate cycling, but negative outcomes for social equity, as resulting from car-urbanism, need to be avoided.