Objectives: Focusing on the city of Tehran, this study aims to explain strategies that can strengthen the human infrastructure for urban cycling, an emerging concept in global urban mobility literature that emphasizes the necessity of enhancing social and cultural capacities as a complement to physical and hard infrastructures.

Methods: This qualitative study was conducted through semi-structured interviews with 17 key stakeholders, including senior managers and officials involved in urban cycling development projects in Tehran, active practitioners directly engaged in these initiatives, urban cycling instructors, and leaders and members of urban cycling groups. After transcription and iterative review, the data were organized into core themes to reveal the dimensions, potential, and challenges associated with this infrastructure.

Findings: The strategic themes indicate that the human infrastructure of urban cycling in Tehran can be conceptualized across four interconnected dimensions: education (skills and urban cycling training; gender and age differences; and attention to social norms), participation (top-down and bottom-up participation; meaningful involvement from decision-making to implementation and evaluation), empowerment (target groups including citizens, instructors, and activists; specialized training; rights and regulations), and awareness-raising (media and content production, events and collective demands, applied research, and campaign development).

Results: Overall, the findings suggest that future policies, programs, and interventions, if directed toward strengthening these four dimensions alongside the simultaneous development of hard infrastructures, can more effectively promote urban cycling as a sustainable and human-centered mode of mobility in Tehran.