Why are there not a lot of women who cycle? (best, commuter)

[cyphorx]

I have been trying to lose some extra pounds so I have been riding a mountain bike every night. one thing I notice is I don't see many women out riding, I see many men riding throughout the city but spotting a woman is rare. Why is this?

PS: I notice its almost the same no matter what neighborhood I ride in.

[jade408]

Enjoy some research and opinions on the topic:
https://hearthandwork.wordpress.com/...en-in-cycling/
New research on women

Also clarify. Do you mean commuting? Recreational cycling? Mountain biking? Biking for non-work transportation? Triathlons? Racing? Group rides?

In my city, commuters and transportation cycling is just about even. A few more men. But women are right there. The official stats I think have it at 45% women, 55% men or close.

No clue about the other types.

There are many many hypotheses around why women don't ride: safety (on the road or in general), infrastructure, burdened with household duties and child care, treatment in bike shops....

[mr bolo]

probably because it's dangerous for a woman to be out in the evening alone, they tend to be out more if they have a male companion

women rarely even go for evening walks alone, too risky these days

also the same with young children, when I was a kid / teen it was common to be out on the street playing or just going out in the evening,

these days you never see kids out on the streets playing or around town unless they are with a parent, probably for safety.

[FluidFreedom]

I want to get into cycling. I've been looking for a good bike. I don't plan on racing or anything like that. I just want to ride for my health and fun.

[jade408]

I am female! I ride around town for errands and the like. I also ride alone at night. I use the same typical precautions I'd use for walking around. Though there are areas I feel comfortable biking at night that I don't like walking to at night (speed saves. ). In fact I ended up getting a new bike to make it easier to bike at night - my bike has a dynamo hub. It is the best thing ever. I generally try to ride my bike anywhere that is under 5 miles away unless there is a good reason not to.

I'll give you a download on reasons in the past I didn't ride (as an adult). And why I ride now. [Long Post Ahead]

When I was in my early 20s, I had the perfect scenario to start biking again. I didn't have a car. I lived about 2 miles from work. The town I lived in was super flat, and the speed limit was only 25 MPH in the whole city. There were lots of bike lanes around town and lanes for my whole route.

One of my coworkers was moving away and sold her bike to me for $20. I got the bike, and planned to ride it to work the next day. I got dressed for work, put on my backpack and rode to work. It was fine. On the way home I decided to take the scenic route along the beach. Sounds great right? It added just a few blocks to my ride. As I was riding home, things were going fine, till I passed the driveway for the park.

I saw a car zoom out of the driveway without even looking. Right into the bike lane. I had to brake really hard. Unfortunately it wasn't quite enough. I hit the car at a fairly low speed. But I fell down. Ended up skinning my elbow. My chain fell of the gears. The drivers were apologetic and stopped to see if I was ok. My bike was fine, but I had to readjust the chain. Etc. Etc. Sadly I was left with big grease stain on my favorite work pants and best fitting work shirt. (And it is really really hard to find pants that fit.). I was shaken up.

I ended up going back to walking or taking the bus to work.

I didn't want to worry about messing up my work clothes. I didn't want to bring extra clothes to work for such a short and easy ride. I didn't want to worry about crappy drivers. And not too long after I got laid off. I ended up moving, and getting a job that required driving to work. My parents gave me their spare car.

I moved to a fairly walkable and transit friendly neighborhood, and at some point I had different jobs that didn't require driving to work. I was close to most important things. I started thinking about giving up my car again (I don't really like driving. Or more importantly circling the block for parking. And paying for parking.)

I started thinking about biking again. Many times over the subsequent years.

But then all the people I saw riding were in two camps:
1. wearing special clothing aka lycra
2. wearing hipster bike clothing: aka rolling their jeans up, tucking their pants into wacky socks, wearing leggings under all skirts and dresses, wearing weird tights under skirts and dresses. And used backpacks.

Basically none of these looks matched my current style. These people didn't have a lifestyle like mine. I didn't want to get special stuff in order to ride a bike places. Special bags. Special outfit configurations. I like to dress up for work and needed to dress up in many jobs. I had enough to carry already. Bringing different clothes wasn't an option.

So there went that idea.

Anyway, eventually I saw that Cycle Chic book floating around. And I liked it a lot. People looked "normal" and they were biking. I thought about biking again, and the universe heard me. I won this bike in a raffle. It was a game changer. I could wear my normal outfits. I got racks/baskets to hold my stuff (read this as my normal purse). Urban cycling was in, and the new bike stuff looked "normal."

I became a convert. I started biking to the farmers market. To outings with friends. Even the grocery store. Some of my favorite stores are so packed that when you factor in parking time, biking only took 5 minutes longer. In fact I found a bunch of my common trips were about the same time if I rode my bike. And way less stress.

I eventually became "obsessed." I am totally a bike cheerleader. And advocate for better bike lanes and infrastructure in my community.

I eventually outgrew that bike - the geometry wasn't ideal for my local hills and there were rides I would skip because the hills were hard. I felt uncomfortable if the distances were longer than about 3-4 miles due to the positioning. And I wanted the aforementioned dyno lights. I kept forgetting to charge my lights. That dissuaded me from doing my errands by bike.

After visiting a bunch of bike shops, and sorting through the misinformation about dynamo light options. There were no stock bikes anywhere that really matched with what I wanted. I tried one of the few production ones and it was too big. All options lead to me doing a bunch of work after I bought it anyway. So I decided to splurge on a new bike totally spec-ed how I wanted. I posted a thread about it.

I learned some stuff along the way.

I took an urban cycling class put on by my local bike coalition. It was helpful. Another group also does a women oriented one as well and I went to those to meet other ladies. I also checked out some great books on urban cycling. Bikenomics and Urban Cycling.

When people meet me, they don't expect that I ride bikes. I don't look like the "stereotypes." I am not a hipster. I am a 30-something, overweight black woman. So yeah, not really on the list.

I think in our culture there is some general messenging about who gets to be a cyclist. And it can be pretty exclusionary.
1. You must be a racer and wear lycra. Or ride the mountains
2. You need to be mechanically oriented and wrench on your own bike
3. You have to be brave
4. You have to be poor to use a bike for transportation (because it is all about mountain biking or Tour de France)

And going to bike shops isn't any better. "Oh you want a bike. You aren't doing a triathalon? Well we have this lovely pink cruiser bike, I am sure it is perfect for you." It is basically as annoying as getting a car. Some shops don't even want to talk to women unless they can prove gearheads.

Then there are appearance requirements for women that men just don't have. And generally women have the household duties. And the bikes on sale at the store aren't equipped for you to bring your purse. Forget about kids or groceries or anything else.

There are lots of barriers to getting more women on bikes. Wonder how long the bike industry will take to really understand and target women. Just like men, our needs are varied. We have different goals. We don't just want the pretty one. You shouldn't treat us like idiots.

The bike industry should wake up soon, the pool of wannabe Lance Armstrongs is shrinking daily.

[cyphorx]

Originally Posted by jade408

Enjoy some research and opinions on the topic:
https://hearthandwork.wordpress.com/...en-in-cycling/
New research on women

Also clarify. Do you mean commuting? Recreational cycling? Mountain biking? Biking for non-work transportation? Triathlons? Racing? Group rides?

In my city, commuters and transportation cycling is just about even. A few more men. But women are right there. The official stats I think have it at 45% women, 55% men or close.

No clue about the other types.

There are many many hypotheses around why women don't ride: safety (on the road or in general), infrastructure, burdened with household duties and child care, treatment in bike shops....

I mean all of the above, last night I ran across 20 other guys on bikes, only one female, and that was close to downtown near some high end apartments where security rides around on bikes also.

[cyphorx]

Originally Posted by jade408

I am female! I ride around town for errands and the like. I also ride alone at night. I use the same typical precautions I'd use for walking around. Though there are areas I feel comfortable biking at night that I don't like walking to at night (speed saves. ). In fact I ended up getting a new bike to make it easier to bike at night - my bike has a dynamo hub. It is the best thing ever. I generally try to ride my bike anywhere that is under 5 miles away unless there is a good reason not to.

I ride across the city, I am trying to get toned lol.

I started thinking about biking again. Many times over the subsequent years.

But then all the people I saw riding were in two camps:
1. wearing special clothing aka lycra
2. wearing hipster bike clothing: aka rolling their jeans up, tucking their pants into wacky socks, wearing leggings under all skirts and dresses, wearing weird tights under skirts and dresses. And used backpacks.

some of(not all) of that lycra looking gear is actually safety gear, some of it has armor stitched into it, some of it is not lyrca at all but more akin to scuba gear(for bad, cold or wet weather) I have some that I got years ago, I hope I shrink down enough to wear it by winter lol.

I mostly wore that stuff under my clothes anyway, that may have been the leggings/tights you saw other women wearing.

I'm more of a muscle shirt, cargo-pants, cross trainers kinda guy when I ride. Kinda look like a stereotypical bike messenger.

[jade408]

What are the road conditions like were you live? The bike infrastructure?

Sharrows? Bike lanes? Bike boulevards? Protected bike lanes? Nothing?

What are the car speeds where you ride? How big are the roads? How many lanes? One way to two way?

This weekend on went on a bike tour sponsored by a local museum. It was 50/50 men women. Or maybe even more women. Oakland is one of the best places for women cycling!

Buried on page 34 is cycling rates by city. I am sure I had seen a newer one at some point that had Oakland up a bit higher. But 2 nearby cities: Richmond and San Leandro have over 50% female commuters. I am actually kinda surprised. They are just far enough away for me I rarely go to either so I can't vouch for the ridership numbers.

When I am on my bike, it is pretty much even. A few things that help, in my mind, Oakland is built on a grid in the center of town where cycling is pretty concentrated. It is easy to find a low stress parallel route. Main thoroughfares are just starting to get protected bike lanes. There are enough visible cyclists that drivers are fairly aware. And I guess the most obvious thing I see: lots of parents (or presumed parents) with kids in bike trailers, bike seats or caravaning with the family out and about in my surrounding neighborhoods.

This is a really great profile about riding in Oakland! It is way less scary than our neighbor across the Bay, SF!

[jade408]

Originally Posted by cyphorx

I ride across the city, I am trying to get toned lol.


some of(not all) of that lycra looking gear is actually safety gear, some of it has armor stitched into it, some of it is not lyrca at all but more akin to scuba gear(for bad, cold or wet weather) I have some that I got years ago, I hope I shrink down enough to wear it by winter lol.

I mostly wore that stuff under my clothes anyway, that may have been the leggings/tights you saw other women wearing.

I'm more of a muscle shirt, cargo-pants, cross trainers kinda guy when I ride. Kinda look like a stereotypical bike messenger.

While it is possible it was technical clothing. I think it was more of a look analogous to their normal outfits. Most of the people I saw on bikes dressed like this:
Hipster

And my style is more like preppy. Think Blair from Gossip Girl and Emma from Glee. So those outfits were not working fot me at all!

I also don't particularly like the chunky tubing on modern carbon and aluminum frames. So basically people on bikes didn't dress like me. And I didn't like the bikes. When I saw people dressed like me on bikes I found attractive I was ready to give it a try. Shallow perhaps. But whatever gets you pedaling.

[cyphorx]

Originally Posted by jade408

What are the road conditions like were you live? The bike infrastructure?

Sharrows? Bike lanes? Bike boulevards? Protected bike lanes? Nothing?

What are the car speeds where you ride? How big are the roads? How many lanes? One way to two way?

This weekend on went on a bike tour sponsored by a local museum. It was 50/50 men women. Or maybe even more women. Oakland is one of the best places for women cycling!

Well it varies since I ride across the city, in the downtown area there are bike lanes, and their is the trinity trail that goes across the city following the river, Throughout the city the road conditions are all over the place, which is why you mostly see mountain bikes and hybrids around here as they can handle the patches of rough road you run into going through some neighborhoods, or for taking shortcuts through wooded areas. And yes most of the females I do see tend to be in or near downtown or on the trinity trail, and they tend to be riding retro-cruisers or road bikes.