Cycling is gaining relevance globally since it is environmentally, economically, and socially sustainable and provides a wealth of health benefits. In Latin American cities, cycling is becoming more popular due to large cycling infrastructure investments implemented in pioneering cities with the purpose of making cycling safer and more attractive. However, despite its growing relevance, studies on cycling in Latin America are still scarce. Most literature on cycling examines North American, European, and Asian cities, and there are relatively few studies that analyze Latin American cities. Furthermore, much of the literature in Latin America examines just a single city. Thus, I address this gap in the literature by developing measures of bicycle accessibility using the concept of level of traffic stress or comfort. I examine the distribution of bicycle accessibility across different socioeconomic groups to understand it from an equity point of view. In addition, theory suggests that higher accessibility should be associated with additional trips; yet there is no evidence of this for bicycle accessibility in Latin America. I also address this limitation in the literature by examining associations between bicycle travel and accessibility. Finally, although many studies have identified differences in self-reported cycling comfort by gender, there is limited research at the individual level understanding differences in behaviors in Latin America. This is important because the social construction of gender identities and roles is largely caused by cultural characteristics and societal expectations. I, therefore, also examine associations between gender and cycling behaviors in large metropolitan areas of Latin America to elucidate city-specific associations between bicycle infrastructure and actual cycling.

This is the first large-scale study analyzing bicycle accessibility, its distribution across different sociodemographic groups, its association with cycling, and gender-specific factors associated with cycling for multiple metropolitan areas in Latin America. The research presented in this dissertation examines cycling in six large Latin American cities: Asuncion (Paraguay), Bogota (Colombia), Buenos Aires (Argentina), Mexico City (Mexico), Santiago (Chile), and Sao Paulo (Brazil). I make three distinct contributions:

• I measure bicycle accessibility by applying the level of traffic stress (LTS) to examine how the level of bicycle accessibility differs among different sociodemographic groups;• I examine associations between bicycle accessibility and the frequency of cycling trips; and • I investigate whether gender acts as a modifier of the infrastructure-cycling relationship. Here, gender differences in the environmental and sociodemographic characteristics associated with cycling were examined.

Level of traffic stress (LTS) is a novel measure that has emerged to address cycling comfort concerns. However, onerous data requirements have made calculating the LTS for many cities around the world impractical. I applied a reliable and generalizable method of calculating LTS utilizing open data to examine how sociodemographic characteristics relate to bicycle accessibility in the six metropolitan areas in Latin America. Residents' sociodemographic characteristics were obtained from household travel surveys in each metropolitan area. I examine accessibility to points of interest (POIs) using isochrone metrics based on 10, 20, and 30-minute travel time from home for several types of bicycle networks determined by different values of LTS and topography. The results show that POIs and bicycle infrastructure tend to be concentrated in and around the CBD, with housing submarkets unaffordable to lower-income residents. Accordingly, negative binomial regression models consistently show that income and educational attainment are positively associated with bicycle accessibility across cities. Specifically, high-income individuals enjoy between 1.08 and 6.10 times higher accessibility than low-income individuals. The accessibility index of individuals with college-level education is 1.12 to 4.15 times higher than that of individuals with primary education. The deployment of bicycle infrastructure in high-density, low-income neighborhoods greatly impacted the distribution of accessibility benefits in some cities. The results suggest that conducting equity studies for transportation planning is vital for Latin American cities, to address inequitably distributed access to opportunities.

Although cycling is a sustainable transportation alternative for cities, little is known about how accessibility measures are associated with cycling. I examined how isochrone accessibility is related to the number of cycling trips in the sample cities. The models show mixed results, contrary to theory and previous studies, which have suggested positive associations between accessibility and cycling. Although I found some positive associations between accessibility and cycling, numerous outcomes show the opposite: accessibility's negative associations with cycling. These opposite outcomes are found mostly in cities with a greater spatial mismatch between where cyclists reside and where the potential opportunities are. This trend is observed even after controlling for sociodemographic and physical environmental variables. Furthermore, in most models, the relationship between accessibility and cycling is statistically non-significant. This highlights the complexity of travel behavior and that the relationship between accessibility and cycling is not straightforward. Furthermore, it underscores the importance of interpreting accessibility measures in the context of the location patterns of individuals and uneven cycling infrastructure. On the other hand, the models show that sociodemographic variables better explain cycling trips than accessibility and physical environmental variables.

In Latin America, women's cycling rates are much lower than men's. Despite this difference, few studies have been published on the gender-specific effects of factors associated with cycling in this region. I address this gap by investigating gender differences in the environmental and sociodemographic characteristics associated with cycling in the sample cities. Specifically, I examined the factors associated with self-reported bicycle mode choice and cycling distances. I found that increased bicycle lane infrastructure, measured as the total km of bicycle lanes within a 500 m radius from home, is associated with more cycling and longer cycling distances, for both women and men. What is striking about the results is that individuals with dependent children, particularly women, tend to cycle more. This finding was unexpected because some scholars suggested that child caring is one of the main obstacles to women’s bicycle use. Nonetheless, women's lower rate of driver's licenses and limited access to motorized modes compared to men's, and women's higher trip rates during the child-raising period may explain this result. Furthermore, older women cycle significantly less than both women of other ages and their male counterparts. Thus, expanding the comfortable and protected cycling network to include nonwork destinations can increase women's cycling rates, meet the needs of women who engage in household care-focused activities, and address the wider gender gap in cycling at older ages. Because cyclists in these cities tend to have lower incomes and no access to automobiles, investments in cycling infrastructure not only address the current gender gap in cycling, but are also likely to favor disadvantaged individuals.

Latin America is a highly unequal region in terms of the spatial distribution of accessibility benefits. The spatial mismatch between where cyclists live and where opportunities are is evident in some cities, because of socioeconomic segregation and a non-diverse cycling population. For urban regulations and policies, conducting equity studies is vital to change this situation. Furthermore, providing cycling infrastructure for a diversity of people, including women and older people, is important to increase overall cycling shares in this region.

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A perennial issue in the debate over legislative interpretation concerns what authority, if any, to accord to the preferred intent of the legislature. A fundamental precept of most normative theories of statutory interpretation is that the essential enterprise of the interpreter, be it a judge, an administrative agency, or any citizen potentially subject to the legislation, is to discern what the legislature intended with its enactment of a particular statutory provision. there is substantial disagreement concerning the appropriate methods of discerning legislative intent, supposing that such intent is relevant to legislative interpretation. The economic analysis of law has made important contributions to these spirited debates. In particular, the contributions of public choice theory and positive political theory continue to bring important insights to the literature on legislative interpretation and, also, on the relationship among legislatures, courts, executive officials, and regulatory agencies.

En la intemperie del consenso. Entrevista a Alfons Cervera

This dissertation consists of three interrelated empirical studies on active transportation planning, the built environment, and pedestrian behaviors in Hong Kong and the San Francisco Bay Area. Through two independent case studies and one comparative study, I examine three overarching research questions: 1) what is the role of social media in facilitating civic urbanism for active transportation? 2) how are active transportation plans associated with the built environment over time? 3) how do pedestrian behaviors differ across cultures? I employ various data and analytical methods to answer these questions.

I first survey the institutional contexts for active transportation planning in Hong Kong and the Bay Area before delving into the three empirical studies in the following three chapters. The active transportation planning process in Hong Kong manifests a complex interplay between the government and civil society, a multifaceted process involving public participation, economic incentives, institutional organization, planning culture and politics. Contrary to the territory-wide strategic plans in Hong Kong, the Bay Area jurisdictions adopt city or county-level master plans for bicycle and pedestrian environment improvements.

The first study examines the use of social media by local placemaking non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Hong Kong, and its role in facilitating public participation processes in active transportation planning. It utilizes social media texts and in-depth interviews with stakeholders to gauge opinions towards active transportation issues in Hong Kong, as well as how the NGOs employ social media as a tool to engage the public around active transportation agendas especially when formal participation channels exhibit limited capacity. The findings reveal the role of social media as a critical outlet for advocacy and a collaborative decision-making process. The case also demonstrates the opportunities for governmental agencies to collaborate with civil society organizations for more people-centric active transportation planning. However, to build the trust that supports such collaboration requires substantial work.

The second study sits in the context of the San Francisco Bay Area. It uses a mixed method approach to investigate the trends and implementation pathways of pedestrian infrastructure enhancements around BART and Caltrain stations in the San Francisco Bay Area. It utilizes several novel datasets generated from unstructured data with statistical modeling, to systematically examine the built environment changes and their association with plans at a high spatial-temporal resolution. It demonstrates the potential role of plans in instigating changes in marked crosswalks at station area intersections, as well as the interactive effects contributed by a variety of station area characteristics. The upgrading and addition of high-visibility crosswalks show an overall improvement of pedestrian environment, suggesting the effectiveness of the presence of master plans.

The third empirical chapter presents a comparative study of pedestrian behaviors across Hong Kong and the San Francisco Bay Area. It utilizes a comprehensive dataset on behavior, infrastructure, and environment for the pedestrians collected at 283 heavy rail station areas, to understand the nuances of pedestrian interaction with human scale environment across two seemingly different cultures for walking in the context of contrasting urban form, car-dependency, as well as the perception of walking. The findings highlight the importance of observing the context-specific nuances in human-centric urban design. First, the types of pedestrian infrastructure and ambient environment surrounding transit-access pedestrians present more similarities than differences across cultures. Second, a typical pedestrian in Hong Kong and San Francisco appears to behave in a similar manner given a comparable level of perceived stress and risk from cars. Third, regions differ in their choices of design treatments for a specific road or traffic flow condition. However, I document how this sometimes may lead to counter effective or unintended results.

Altogether, the three studies contribute a comprehensive story about the state-of-the-art practice of active transportation planning in a global context. It shows how different policy contexts shape the roles of prominent stakeholders in the active transportation planning process. The two-case comparison extends findings from single case studies in terms of how urban design transfer or deviate from place to place. In order to achieve active transportation-friendly environment, design strategies should not be taken at face value without examining the human-scale nuances such as walking speed or compliance with traffic rules.