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Bicycling Gender gap?
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I would love to be able to ride my bike more often, but there are several reasons I don't. Number one is for sure safety, my state has the distinct pleasure of holding the highest fatality rate for cyclists. I live in a very urban area, so lots of traffic and yet very few bike lanes; and I have personally witnessed multiple bikes forced off the road by people in large vehicles screaming profanities for being on the road. The last time I was riding well ahead of my spouse during a busier time (Saturday morning) I had a car throw something at me for not responding to the driver who wanted me to get in their car. Now my wife really doesn't want me riding alone so there goes my idea of commuting to work. Plus, it's pretty intimidating to try to get into serious biking. The running groups are a lot friendlier IMO, especially for newbies who don't have the more expensive equipment and accessories yet. So I just use my bike for fun/leisure rides on less busy roads and stay in the gym or run on sidewalks for exercise.2
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This week, I had decided to start biking to the train station.
Monday? Great. 30 minutes there. 30 minutes back.
Tuesday? partially great. 30 Minutes there. Bus ride home. Some piece of *kitten* had stolen my bike.
I won't be riding my bike to the train station anymore. I won't be riding any bike since right now I can't afford to replace it.9 -
I'm pulling this out of my butt, but I feel like women tend to think a bit more about safety. I don't feel safe riding on the streets here in America, and there aren't many other places to ride a bike conveniently. Drivers aren't used to cyclists out on the road here as much as they are in Euro countries, and especially where I am, drivers are also extremely aggressive, bordering on reckless. I'm also not THAT great of a cyclist (I learned how to ride a bike fairly late), so there's that added risk of messing up and injuring myself as well. There are a lot of other activities I could do where I don't have to worry about road rash.
A lot of this depends on where you live in the US. My city is pretty bike friendly and has many miles of dedicated trails and dedicated bike lanes on many roads. There's a 25 mile loop I do around the city of which I'd say about 95% of that loop is on dedicated recreation paths. The city is currently in the process of linking up 100 miles of dedicated recreational paths...so you could do 100 miles and never hit the actual rode if you wanted to.
There are definitely roads that I won't ride here and one would surely be taking their chances as those particular roads do not have a bike lane and are fast.
My favorite ride is right out my front door...I can do a big loop on the road just down the street and it's a perfect 20K flat time trial with bike lanes and the speed limit is 25 MPH...I live in a small village outside of the city and it's perfect for riding as long as you're not on the main street through the village.2 -
cwolfman13 wrote: »I'm pulling this out of my butt, but I feel like women tend to think a bit more about safety. I don't feel safe riding on the streets here in America, and there aren't many other places to ride a bike conveniently. Drivers aren't used to cyclists out on the road here as much as they are in Euro countries, and especially where I am, drivers are also extremely aggressive, bordering on reckless. I'm also not THAT great of a cyclist (I learned how to ride a bike fairly late), so there's that added risk of messing up and injuring myself as well. There are a lot of other activities I could do where I don't have to worry about road rash.
A lot of this depends on where you live in the US. My city is pretty bike friendly and has many miles of dedicated trails and dedicated bike lanes on many roads. There's a 25 mile loop I do around the city of which I'd say about 95% of that loop is on dedicated recreation paths. The city is currently in the process of linking up 100 miles of dedicated recreational paths...so you could do 100 miles and never hit the actual rode if you wanted to.
There are definitely roads that I won't ride here and one would surely be taking their chances as those particular roads do not have a bike lane and are fast.
My favorite ride is right out my front door...I can do a big loop on the road just down the street and it's a perfect 20K flat time trial with bike lanes and the speed limit is 25 MPH...I live in a small village outside of the city and it's perfect for riding as long as you're not on the main street through the village.
It's also somewhat relative/subjective. What one person perceives as risky another person may not... and where one person draws the line of too risky another person may be fine with.1 -
It looks like the responses here mostly match the articles linked- safety/fear is the primary factor keeping women off bikes. The gender gap closes in countries that have infrastructure keeping bikes and cars separate. Fear of attack/assault is a concern, but (in general) not so much as fear of vehicles, or else we'd probably see more of a gender gap in walking/running too (we don't) and less gap correlated with infrastructure. It makes sense to me that women (in general) would have stronger safety concerns than men for myriad reasons. This leads me to wonder, of the men who don’t ride, is safety also the major factor (and just being a minority in their gender), or do men choose not to ride for some other reason?
The conversation is conflating user of bikes for commuting, with casual use and more serious sports use. From a purely commuting perspective there had been a lot of research in London on adoption, with perception of traffic safety being the biggest issue. Limited facilities at workplaces is an issue, but that seems to be developing.
What has been found is that the majority of fatal and serious accidents are women, with a difference in the nature of the accident being gender biased. Women are more affected by nearside crush, men more often tail-ended. That seems to reflect different ride styles.
A lot of the investment is better cycle infrastructure reduces the risk of crush incidents.
Reporting bias is an issue, the numbers of incidents are fairly low as a proportion of total commute rides.2 -
I am a triathlete and new to biking. Grew up with limited sport. I am starting to bike more, but here are some potential limitations drawbacks that I see. Takes more time away from kids than running, etc. Nervous about riding in a pack, but not wanting to bike alone. Limited knowledge about mechanical skills of bike---change tire, chain fall off, maintenance. Finding friends or other people who do it.1
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MeanderingMammal wrote: »It looks like the responses here mostly match the articles linked- safety/fear is the primary factor keeping women off bikes. The gender gap closes in countries that have infrastructure keeping bikes and cars separate. Fear of attack/assault is a concern, but (in general) not so much as fear of vehicles, or else we'd probably see more of a gender gap in walking/running too (we don't) and less gap correlated with infrastructure. It makes sense to me that women (in general) would have stronger safety concerns than men for myriad reasons. This leads me to wonder, of the men who don’t ride, is safety also the major factor (and just being a minority in their gender), or do men choose not to ride for some other reason?
The conversation is conflating user of bikes for commuting, with casual use and more serious sports use. From a purely commuting perspective there had been a lot of research in London on adoption, with perception of traffic safety being the biggest issue. Limited facilities at workplaces is an issue, but that seems to be developing.
What has been found is that the majority of fatal and serious accidents are women, with a difference in the nature of the accident being gender biased. Women are more affected by nearside crush, men more often tail-ended. That seems to reflect different ride styles.
A lot of the investment is better cycle infrastructure reduces the risk of crush incidents.
Reporting bias is an issue, the numbers of incidents are fairly low as a proportion of total commute rides.
Whoah! There are so many reasons for women to be more cautious; from preservation of society by our ancestors (less expendable as caregivers and mothers) to physiology to social conditioning…but I never thought cycling could actually BE more dangerous for women. I know for cyclists in the US, the most fatal collision is being hit from behind, but I don’t know of any gender data. What is the nearside crush? What riding styles contribute to which collision?1 -
I ride just for recreation and love it. We started out as 4 women who wanted some exercise and then decided to make a weekend habit of it. We find trails all over our city and like to try different ones. Things changed somewhat when the husbands decided to join us, as the distances became longer and more important (usually around 20km). Even with that, though we enjoy our weekend outing, stop for coffee along the way and discover lots of trails. Our city has put trails in areas that used to be rail lines. We sometimes have short distances on the road, but usually look for trails. I will bike myself from my house without a worry, but would never bike to work or on busy streets or the downtown areas due to the cars. I broke my arm last year on a trail after missing a turn at the bottom of a hill, but it's all healed and I've been out this year since the weather has finally gotten nice. So, its great for exercise, socializing and being out in nature.1
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I don't think the gender gap is inherently a bad thing. It can be caused by risk preferences, physical anatomy, or helmet head. The more important question is "are women wanting to bike and unable to do so."2
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I don't think the gender gap is inherently a bad thing. It can be caused by risk preferences, physical anatomy, or helmet head. The more important question is "are women wanting to bike and unable to do so."
Or is the more important question "would more women really enjoy cycling , but it isn't on their radar, or they've felt put off it for some reason?".4 -
I would ride a bike if I had roads with bike lanes or wide shoulders near home. We have only narrow twisty 2 lane roads with no shoulders.
I have many female friends in more accessible areas who ride a lot and do tris,0 -
MeanderingMammal wrote: »It looks like the responses here mostly match the articles linked- safety/fear is the primary factor keeping women off bikes. The gender gap closes in countries that have infrastructure keeping bikes and cars separate. Fear of attack/assault is a concern, but (in general) not so much as fear of vehicles, or else we'd probably see more of a gender gap in walking/running too (we don't) and less gap correlated with infrastructure. It makes sense to me that women (in general) would have stronger safety concerns than men for myriad reasons. This leads me to wonder, of the men who don’t ride, is safety also the major factor (and just being a minority in their gender), or do men choose not to ride for some other reason?
The conversation is conflating user of bikes for commuting, with casual use and more serious sports use. From a purely commuting perspective there had been a lot of research in London on adoption, with perception of traffic safety being the biggest issue. Limited facilities at workplaces is an issue, but that seems to be developing.
What has been found is that the majority of fatal and serious accidents are women, with a difference in the nature of the accident being gender biased. Women are more affected by nearside crush, men more often tail-ended. That seems to reflect different ride styles.
A lot of the investment is better cycle infrastructure reduces the risk of crush incidents.
Reporting bias is an issue, the numbers of incidents are fairly low as a proportion of total commute rides.
Whoah! There are so many reasons for women to be more cautious; from preservation of society by our ancestors (less expendable as caregivers and mothers) to physiology to social conditioning…but I never thought cycling could actually BE more dangerous for women. I know for cyclists in the US, the most fatal collision is being hit from behind, but I don’t know of any gender data. What is the nearside crush? What riding styles contribute to which collision?
The sample sizes are reasonably low, but large enough to reach conclusions.
Road position is a significant contributor. The nearside crush is where someone sits in the nearside third of the lane. That makes it more likely that a driver will risk a less safe pass, because they're not being forced to give safe distance. So you end up with closer passes, increasing sideswipes. If that's a larger vehicle then it becomes more likely that the rider gets trapped.
There are several different aspects of Large Goods Vehicles and Public Service Vehicles that help that, with a lot of advocacy for improved driver visibility.
Cyclists should dominate the road space, not cower in the gutter. The former gets you shouted at, the latter gets you injured or worse.3 -
MeanderingMammal wrote: »MeanderingMammal wrote: »It looks like the responses here mostly match the articles linked- safety/fear is the primary factor keeping women off bikes. The gender gap closes in countries that have infrastructure keeping bikes and cars separate. Fear of attack/assault is a concern, but (in general) not so much as fear of vehicles, or else we'd probably see more of a gender gap in walking/running too (we don't) and less gap correlated with infrastructure. It makes sense to me that women (in general) would have stronger safety concerns than men for myriad reasons. This leads me to wonder, of the men who don’t ride, is safety also the major factor (and just being a minority in their gender), or do men choose not to ride for some other reason?
The conversation is conflating user of bikes for commuting, with casual use and more serious sports use. From a purely commuting perspective there had been a lot of research in London on adoption, with perception of traffic safety being the biggest issue. Limited facilities at workplaces is an issue, but that seems to be developing.
What has been found is that the majority of fatal and serious accidents are women, with a difference in the nature of the accident being gender biased. Women are more affected by nearside crush, men more often tail-ended. That seems to reflect different ride styles.
A lot of the investment is better cycle infrastructure reduces the risk of crush incidents.
Reporting bias is an issue, the numbers of incidents are fairly low as a proportion of total commute rides.
Whoah! There are so many reasons for women to be more cautious; from preservation of society by our ancestors (less expendable as caregivers and mothers) to physiology to social conditioning…but I never thought cycling could actually BE more dangerous for women. I know for cyclists in the US, the most fatal collision is being hit from behind, but I don’t know of any gender data. What is the nearside crush? What riding styles contribute to which collision?
The sample sizes are reasonably low, but large enough to reach conclusions.
Road position is a significant contributor. The nearside crush is where someone sits in the nearside third of the lane. That makes it more likely that a driver will risk a less safe pass, because they're not being forced to give safe distance. So you end up with closer passes, increasing sideswipes. If that's a larger vehicle then it becomes more likely that the rider gets trapped.
There are several different aspects of Large Goods Vehicles and Public Service Vehicles that help that, with a lot of advocacy for improved driver visibility.
Cyclists should dominate the road space, not cower in the gutter. The former gets you shouted at, the latter gets you injured or worse.
But does the former help driver/cyclist relations? Is that being a good cycling advocate?
People need to not be *kitten*. Both drivers and cyclists.2 -
I'm a mountain biker/ road biker / and a triathlete. In my area we have a very good selection of rural "bike routes" and a lot of groups that ride. I usually ride with friends, my fiancé, or occasionally alone. I have a few helpful tools that make my riding seem safer; I have a Garmin Varia Rearview Radar that beeps and appears on my bike computer screen when a car/large object is approaching from behind me and if/when it passes me. Also, I have a mirror attached to my glasses, and I have a light that flashes. My fiancé and I both use Garmin LiveTrack . I don't like to ride alone but I will to get my training in.1
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I only skimmed the responses but did anyone bring up children? Fair, or not, women tend to be the ones responsible for children. Although both my husband and I work due to his weird schedules it was always me who had to take the kids to daycare and/or school. This made riding to work difficult where he had no problem doing so. I might have to stop for groceries on the way home (something you can't really do on a bike). And then more direct causes like I was never comfortable biking while pregnant and honestly I was pregnant every other year for 5 years. Immediately following giving birth, a bike seat was NOT something I was interested in. When nursing infants I couldn't be away from them that long, etc.
And yes, I think men in general are willing to accept more risk and deal with more injury in their activities.5 -
This not the first time I have heard the safety argument come up. It is a legitimate concern, especially in consideration of motor vehicles.
Is it possible there are other aspects involved? Most of the cyclists/mountain bikers I know are male. Most of them in order to make this hobby more cost effective do the majority of maintenance, and mechanical work on their bikes. Having worked as a pro mechanic on cars/trucks, bicycles are nice way for me to make use of some of my tools without breaking my back, or hands these days. Which is not to say that women can't do these things[some of them certainly do], but the ones that I know are less likely to. If I was going to pay a bike shop to do the work, I don't know if I would be as interested in bicycles as I am.0 -
I am from Namibia.On the moment it is fairly safe to ride.But safety is becoming worse.The roads that we can ride women alone,is getting less.Even for men.Cyclists have been mugged ,attacked and beaten even on our main roads,which is very busy.Luckily i ride with my husband and son,they are always not to far from me and i have a little gas canister to protect me.Here the cyclist are more men.Also the bike fit means a lot.When my saddle and setup was not correct,i was not fun riding.And a decent bike here really cost a lot of money.3
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MeanderingMammal wrote: »MeanderingMammal wrote: »It looks like the responses here mostly match the articles linked- safety/fear is the primary factor keeping women off bikes. The gender gap closes in countries that have infrastructure keeping bikes and cars separate. Fear of attack/assault is a concern, but (in general) not so much as fear of vehicles, or else we'd probably see more of a gender gap in walking/running too (we don't) and less gap correlated with infrastructure. It makes sense to me that women (in general) would have stronger safety concerns than men for myriad reasons. This leads me to wonder, of the men who don’t ride, is safety also the major factor (and just being a minority in their gender), or do men choose not to ride for some other reason?
The conversation is conflating user of bikes for commuting, with casual use and more serious sports use. From a purely commuting perspective there had been a lot of research in London on adoption, with perception of traffic safety being the biggest issue. Limited facilities at workplaces is an issue, but that seems to be developing.
What has been found is that the majority of fatal and serious accidents are women, with a difference in the nature of the accident being gender biased. Women are more affected by nearside crush, men more often tail-ended. That seems to reflect different ride styles.
A lot of the investment is better cycle infrastructure reduces the risk of crush incidents.
Reporting bias is an issue, the numbers of incidents are fairly low as a proportion of total commute rides.
Whoah! There are so many reasons for women to be more cautious; from preservation of society by our ancestors (less expendable as caregivers and mothers) to physiology to social conditioning…but I never thought cycling could actually BE more dangerous for women. I know for cyclists in the US, the most fatal collision is being hit from behind, but I don’t know of any gender data. What is the nearside crush? What riding styles contribute to which collision?
The sample sizes are reasonably low, but large enough to reach conclusions.
Road position is a significant contributor. The nearside crush is where someone sits in the nearside third of the lane. That makes it more likely that a driver will risk a less safe pass, because they're not being forced to give safe distance. So you end up with closer passes, increasing sideswipes. If that's a larger vehicle then it becomes more likely that the rider gets trapped.
There are several different aspects of Large Goods Vehicles and Public Service Vehicles that help that, with a lot of advocacy for improved driver visibility.
Cyclists should dominate the road space, not cower in the gutter. The former gets you shouted at, the latter gets you injured or worse.
But does the former help driver/cyclist relations? Is that being a good cycling advocate?
People need to not be *kitten*. Both drivers and cyclists.
True, but If you're entitled to something you've got to take it and hold it. As a pedestrian, I'm not going to step in front of a moving car that may not see me. I will, if I have the right of way move briskly when there's a battle of wills going on, and I can do so with limited risk of safety.
I don't bike much anymore, but at the end of the day, if you're entitled to use the lane, use it. Don't be a *kitten* and deliberately block or impede traffic, but If you're entitled to the road as a moving vehicle, don't waffle about whether you're going to behave as a part of traffic or as a pedestrian. Because if you're not sure, neither are the drivers around you.2 -
MeanderingMammal wrote: »MeanderingMammal wrote: »It looks like the responses here mostly match the articles linked- safety/fear is the primary factor keeping women off bikes. The gender gap closes in countries that have infrastructure keeping bikes and cars separate. Fear of attack/assault is a concern, but (in general) not so much as fear of vehicles, or else we'd probably see more of a gender gap in walking/running too (we don't) and less gap correlated with infrastructure. It makes sense to me that women (in general) would have stronger safety concerns than men for myriad reasons. This leads me to wonder, of the men who don’t ride, is safety also the major factor (and just being a minority in their gender), or do men choose not to ride for some other reason?
The conversation is conflating user of bikes for commuting, with casual use and more serious sports use. From a purely commuting perspective there had been a lot of research in London on adoption, with perception of traffic safety being the biggest issue. Limited facilities at workplaces is an issue, but that seems to be developing.
What has been found is that the majority of fatal and serious accidents are women, with a difference in the nature of the accident being gender biased. Women are more affected by nearside crush, men more often tail-ended. That seems to reflect different ride styles.
A lot of the investment is better cycle infrastructure reduces the risk of crush incidents.
Reporting bias is an issue, the numbers of incidents are fairly low as a proportion of total commute rides.
Whoah! There are so many reasons for women to be more cautious; from preservation of society by our ancestors (less expendable as caregivers and mothers) to physiology to social conditioning…but I never thought cycling could actually BE more dangerous for women. I know for cyclists in the US, the most fatal collision is being hit from behind, but I don’t know of any gender data. What is the nearside crush? What riding styles contribute to which collision?
The sample sizes are reasonably low, but large enough to reach conclusions.
Road position is a significant contributor. The nearside crush is where someone sits in the nearside third of the lane. That makes it more likely that a driver will risk a less safe pass, because they're not being forced to give safe distance. So you end up with closer passes, increasing sideswipes. If that's a larger vehicle then it becomes more likely that the rider gets trapped.
There are several different aspects of Large Goods Vehicles and Public Service Vehicles that help that, with a lot of advocacy for improved driver visibility.
Cyclists should dominate the road space, not cower in the gutter. The former gets you shouted at, the latter gets you injured or worse.
But does the former help driver/cyclist relations? Is that being a good cycling advocate?
People need to not be *kitten*. Both drivers and cyclists.
Well the advice on the highway code is to use the middle third of the lane. The advice for drivers is also to give a bike as much space as they'd give a car, hence the road positioning.
It's worth highlighting that a great many drivers haven't read the highway code since passing their tests, and aren't are that it gets reissued. The fiction of "road tax" gets trotted out by the ill informed with monotonous regularity, as do rants about high via, and helmet use.
Fwiw about 18 months ago the Met Traffic Division did some work on education. They took cyclists and stick them in the cab of a rigid LGV and a 74 passenger PSV, and also took commercial drivers and stuck them on bikes. An eye opener for both communities.2 -
I have found with bicycles, and road riding, the more aggressive I am, the better off I am from a safety perspective. I am not an advocate of passive/defensive m/c riding either though.1
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