How to encourage more women to cycle?

Is he a surgeon?

Corrected

Have you seen this?

Any thoughts?

Crikey that's an improvement from the early days!

Better, and some good quotes, but boy do I find these things patronising. No mention of ss or fixed bikes either which are surely perfect for riding around town.

http://thebikeshow.net/how-to-get-more-women-riding-bikes/

They couldn't even make the models in that picture ride their bikes.

http://towerhamletswomenscycling.com/

I haven't posted in this thread yet as I haven't had time. There's basically no big secret why women cycle less than men. It's been researched many times. What everybody then gets worried about is how to follow on from that research to actually increase cycling among women. There's no magic formula, no silver bullet. It's just continuous, plodding work, just as it is with helping men to cycle.

I think that there are basically only two points that survive detailed scrutiny of the differences between men and women in this respect. (It has to be noted that the discrepancy is not as extreme as is sometimes made out.)

(1) Reduce gender stereotyping--stop girls and women being discouraged from physical activity, stop silly segregation between 'male' activities and 'female' activities in general. There is very little that either gender can't do, and it mostly has to do with reproductive functions. :)

For instance, there's no doubt that many more women than at present could become good bike mechanics, or could acquire mechanical skills to become proper bike nerds. Women's and men's abilities don't differ that much; I always use the brother-sister comparison. Imagine that every woman has a brother and every man has a sister. If one of them is good at mechanics, it's very likely that the other one will be, too, although they may of course disincline away from what they're good at because of their upbringing, or to differentiate themselves from their sibling.

Of course, some people find it attractive to distinguish themselves by their femininity or masculinity, but I'm not talking about how people dress and how they look, just about the associated stereotypes that say 'you can't do this, you can't do that, you have to do this, you have to do that'. And I mean that to apply to men in the same way, although their gender stereotypes don't specifically militate against physical activity.

You'll note that part of what I do here is to downplay the differences that are often perceived between the genders. I don't do that to implicitly confirm my view or as a strategy to make it seem more plausible. I genuinely believe that it isn't the case that the differences are that extreme, and, again, I mostly talk about the stereotypes, as they hide the general complexity of people's personalities.

(2) As more women are primary child carers than men, they tend to take more local trips. There are, however, barriers to local trips, especially with children. Remove those barriers (long story how to) and more people, not just women, will cycle more for local trips. (There is of course no reason why more men should not become primary child carers from a certain age onwards, e.g. to reduce the gender stereotype that men should work and women should look after the children, and to reduce the importance of this point.)

There are, of course, all the usual barriers which apply equally to men and women, e.g. the need to reduce trip distances that people have to take in London. (Average trip distances for mundane journeys in London are ridiculous. It's one of the biggest barriers to cycling in general, and it's important for minor aspects like the much-discussed problem of dressing up for a job; it's perfectly feasible to combine that with cycling if you don't have to go too far. If you have to travel 14 miles across London every day, you need showers and changing facilities at work, all of which costs time.) Or the need for supportive peer groups--men often cycle because their mates do. The more women know women who cycle, they will do, too, but again that's nothing that's specific to women, it's just simple common sense.

At the end of the day, as usual, cycling just needs to become normal, as normal as it is for most people/women on here. 'To make cycling normal' is cycle campaigning in a nutshell.

We Need a Bike Lane for Women to 'Pootle' Away from Lycra Clad Men says ex Labour Minister

Speaking to the Telegraph, Meg Hillier, a Home Office minister in Gordon Brown’s government, and vice-chair of the all parliamentary cycling group called for roads to be redesigned to encourage more women to cycle. She said that women are not interested in getting hot and sweaty cycling fast and so the segregation of lanes would encourage more women to opt for life on two wheels.

I feel slightly sorry for her. She's fallen into that old trap of describing what she wants but failing to acknowledge that what she wants isn't the full picture. Basically she's provided the counterpoint to that fat idiot Boris saying that E&C gyratory is fine if you just keep your wits about you - in both cases they've fallen foul of the not-very-complex notion that different people want different things, and that if you're going to be dictating policy then you've got to take into account all the different things that people want, and why, otherwise the people you've failed to adequately represent are going to be pissed off. The life of a politician, innit.

Aside from being patronising of experienced cyclists I also think that she goes quite a way to putting nervous and novice cyclists off. 'Oh these roads are too dangerous as they are, this minister says so, I definitely won't cycle now'.

a few years ago, I had just got a job closer to home, rather than 15 miles away and decided that I could cycle there. I started a ladies cycle group two weeks before I had bought my bike.
Having the cycle group really made me determined to first of all buy a bike, and secondly, to ride for leisure and not just commuting.
Having a group of street cyclists to chat amongst and learn from was really helpful in my first few months of riding around London. Now we have ladies who have never cycled in town, or have just bought their first bike joining us too! Plenty say they are really nervous about cycling on the roads, and don't pass cars or busses and tend to get squished.

I volunteered on Saturday as a Dr Bike mechanic for the RideLondon Freecycle. I did work at 2 of the 5 sites (Leatherhall Market and Green Park) and was sadly, the only female mechanic at both sites. I did have one person say to me that she was really pleased to see a woman working on the bikes, so hopefully I've at least inspired one person out there to do their own maintenance.

Hiya,

If anyone knows any ladies who are wanting more experience cycling in town and through different areas, then they are welcome at the leisure cycling club that I run, Radiant Riders.
The next event is Sunday 21st Sept frm Hoxton To Hampton Court Palace. https://www.facebook.com/events/1504044119837173/permalink/1504154863159432/

The event is open to everyone so if anyone from here would like to join then you are most welcome of course.
Please pass on the details. We ride only as fast as the slowest rider and if anyone is nervous then myself or my co-leader rides beside them / keeps an eye out until they feel more confident.
18+ years, females only. Own bike needed, ready to ride.

^thanks for the info, not sure I can do the 21st but I've started following them on Facebook.

:)

Just seen this. I'll add it to my Facebook and have a proper look later.

The LCC policy forum is doing a seminar which might be of interest - it's not going to focus on 'how do we get more women to cycle' but it is female led, i.e. all the panellists are female. (Men are welcome to attend.)
Confirmed panellists so far include (more TBA)

TfL Head of Surface Planning Lilli Matson
Chair of London Assembly Transport Committee Caroline Pidgeon
Award-winning Advocate Sally Hinchcliffe
Senior Transport Planner Charlotte May

(Full disclosure: I work for LCC. Pretty sure I'd be going even if I didn't though because it looks really interesting.)

http://lcc.org.uk/pages/upcoming-seminars

This is great thank you @tricitybendix. Have signed up, will see you there.

Yeah looks interesting. I'll try pop along.

Women tend to stop cycling when they approach/pass 40?
http://lovingdalston.co.uk/2014/10/why-women-get-off-the-bike-new-hackney-survey/

I think I'm going to have to bail on this event now (too many meetings on Thursday and I go to press on Friday), if anyone here wants my place, let me know, otherwise I'll write to LCC and cancel it so someone on their waiting list can attend.

"Accordingly, criticism has been made on social media that Hackney’s cycling boom does not cater for women who are supposedly less risk-averse or more foolish (choose your view) than men."

I think they've got that the wrong way round. If women are less risk-averse than men then they'd hardly be giving up riding because they're worried about traffic while the men carry on. I'm going to assume it's a typo.

I do like this high-five picture on Cable Street, though:

@pootsmanuva did you ever do your Breeze training with British Cycling? It's something that I've been thinking about idly over the last month or so.

It's been the same story for years, and this preliminary look at app data doesn't change that--women don't tend to cycle as far as men in the urban context, towards middle age many (more than men) are the primary carers for their children, and/or their lifestyle simply doesn't demand the commute into Central London any more. Women tend to do more local trips than men for these reason, among others, and that's also why they tend to use smaller local streets more. (The busier streets tend to be the radial routes into Central London.) You'd also have to look at numbers of men vs. women who are actually using the app. I'm sure someone's done that and we'll get properly interpreted results in due course.

I think I'm going to have to bail on this event now (too many meetings on Thursday and I go to press on Friday), if anyone here wants my place, let me know, otherwise I'll write to LCC and cancel it so someone on their waiting list can attend.

Same. I'm hammered at work :(