Walking and cycling are the most sustainable modes of transport in cities and should be placed at the heart of a transition towards low-carbon urban mobility systems. This is because walking and cycling can improve the life chances and health and wellbeing of each city inhabitant -- irrespective of their socioeconomic status, gender, ethnicity, age -- with hardly any adverse impact on the lives of fellow inhabitants. Research on how walking and cycling in cities can be encouraged is burgeoning and provides many compelling insights. However, insights about the role of infrastructure in stimulating urban walking and cycling are limited because the focus is typically on the 'hardware' of cycle lanes, sidewalks, bike sharing schemes, road design, urban design and so forth; the 'software' of governance, regulation, information provision, maintenance and repair as well as the embedded knowledge, know-how, meanings, values, aspirations and emotions are not always given the emphasis they deserve. Moreover, the research is often set in cities in the global North and assumes insights and concepts that has emerged from there as universally valid and easily transferable to cities in the global South.

This international research project will adopt a broader understanding of infrastructure and develop original empirical and theoretical insights on the basis of comparative research in the UK, the Netherlands and the state of São Paulo in Brazil. The activities undertaken by the Oxford team focus on the role of community-led initiatives in London to encourage walking and cycling and in creating infrastructures that are conducive to these practices. The Oxford researchers will make an inventory of the heterogeneity of recent community-led initiatives in both cities, covering such issues as what they consist of, who are involved, what the goals are, and who benefits. The Oxford team will also critically evaluate if and how such initiatives can contribute to a large-scale transition towards low-carbon urban mobility. A mixed-method approach consisting of document analysis, interviews and focus groups will be adopted, and the team will engage with local communities, policymakers, interest groups and other stakeholders in various ways. It can be expected that, apart from creating academic outputs, the project will contribute to: social learning among community-led initiatives through the sharing of experiences and good practices; to greater reflexivity about how policy, governance and regulation affect community-led initiatives; and to the creation of more effective support structures for such initiatives.

Potential Impact:
There are a wide range of potential beneficiaries of the research. These can be divided into direct and indirect potential beneficiaries.

Direct potential beneficiaries include individuals and organisations who are involved in the project:
1| interviewed individuals with a leading role in community initiatives to encourage walking and cycling in London and São Paulo
2| interviewed policymakers in both cities
3| participants in the focus groups in the selected neighbourhoods in those cities
4| attendees representing community initiatives, walking and cycling interest groups, and the policy community in those cities
5| individuals and organisations included in the e-mail database that will be constructed and continually updated

Indirect potential beneficiaries are not directly involved in the project but may benefit from visiting the project website, from the policy and project briefings, or from the responses by direct beneficiaries to the project's engagement activities. These indirect potential beneficiaries include:
1| People, NGOs and businesses involved in community-led initiatives to encourage walking and cycling in London and São Paulo (and not directly engaged by the project), in other cities and areas in the UK and Brazil, and in locations elsewhere
2| policymakers and transport planners at both national/state and local/city levels in the UK, Brazil, the Netherlands and elsewhere
3| walking and cycling interest groups and lobby groups in the UK, Brazil, the Netherlands and elsewhere
4| socioeconomically disadvantaged communities in London and São Paulo
5| pedestrians, cyclists and the general public in the UK, Brazil and the Netherlands

The identified stakeholders may benefit in various ways from the project. As detailed in the 'Pathways to Impact', they may develop a better understanding of what community-led initiatives there are in London and São Paulo, what benefits they generate and for whom, which challenges and barriers they face, and what their contribution can be to a wider transition towards 'just' urban mobility. This knowledge may have a number of more specific effects. It may lead to:
- the diffusion and sharing of good practices (first-order learning) among grassroots initiatives to encourage walking and cycling;
- greater networking among such initiatives;
- greater reflexivity (second-order learning) among policymakers, planners and interest groups about how current policies and governance structures, including funding schemes and consultation/participation mechanisms, both facilitate and complicate/frustrate community-led initiatives;
- enhanced (government) support and reduced (regulatory) barriers for community-led initiatives; and
- greater knowledge about, and visibility of, community-led initiatives to encourage walking and cycling among pedestrians, cyclists and the general public.