Why women don't cycle?

I am a man and comments I've had from the women in work when I have cycled to work include:

Doesnt it make you sweaty?

Doesnt it make you tired?

Doesnt it spoil your hair?

I would be scared of the traffic.

Also I was on the side of the road for Velothon Wales 2018 last Sunday for a good 5hrs and noticed that most  entrants were young white males but the number of female riders seemed higher this year, some obviously entered as a group or team.  Good to see more women taking part.

Strange though that there were very few black male cyclists that passed me and I didnt see any black women for some reason?

I have noticed more women out on the road around here (s Wales) in recent times, some cycling on their own which is not something I would have notices a few years ago.

I have 2 teenage daughters who both have bikes and as we live right next to NCN 4 will cycle on there but they dont like the traffic.  Oh and I have bought them helmets but leave it to them to decide whether to wear them or not and they dont normaly bother mainly because they dont want to spoil their hair. 

I dont want to start a helmet debate but I personally feel that the excercise benefits they get far outweigh the head injury risk.

Cant blame then staying off the road though there are some right arsehole drivers around.

Well I have just contacted TDL Event Services and they say that around 1000 women took part in the Velothon Wales event, over all 3 distances - I think the total was about 8000 riders.

Spoke to my teenage daughters and they thought that the Velothon was a race and didnt realise you could just pay and enter and I think this is part of the problem.  Its an image thing, most of the cyclist around here are young men on racing bikes with racing gear on, same as the Velothon and no doubt the same country wide.  Women see it as a sporting endeavour.

Managed to persuade a woman neighbour to borrow her daughters mtb and come cycle camping with a few of us a couple of years back - she wasnt that keen on the cycling side of it but she did like sitting around the campfire getting pissed in the evening.  Problem was, she had a weak bladder and anyone who shared her tent would wake up soaked in her urine - how we laughed.  Thankfully she has moved.

For my wife, who won't commute 6 miles now, all of those below, linked into ones which are similar.  She lacks confidence because of traffic because there are poor cycle lanes.  Hills cause sweat. 

Lack of confidence / Fear of traffic / Lack of cycle lanes
Not wanting to break a sweat / hills

potentially mess your hair etc
Weather
Not knowing enough about bicycle maintence

She will happily go out with me and the kids on a leisure ride as long as it's not too hilly. 

I strongly suggest you go over the Pennines and talk to Queensbury Queens of the Mountain CC. They know a thing about getting women cycling and the things that stop them. They are are a club for all abilities and will probably have most of the answers you are seeking...

Well, this won't make me very popular, but then you've probably understood that that doesn't bother me.   The proportion of women involved in accidents almost certainly dissuades them from getting on the road, and that is a genuine shame.   Unfortunately for the crew-cuts over at the Guardian, this over-representation has nothing to do with nasty behaviour on the part of heterosexual white men, and a lot to do with the fact that women have shit road sense.  

On every commute into London, and on every commute home, I will see the following at least once: 

1.  at the ASL, someone will stop far over to the right well forward into the ASL.  Well, that's OK right?  Except that that person will be the slowest rider and when the lights change to green, the faster riders are forced either to undertake - which is dangerous, stupid and potentially actionable in case of collision - or else to sit patiently behind that rider either until that rider moves further across to the left of lane 1, or else a gap opens in lane 2 (which is generally filled with motor vehicles doing => 150% of the posted speed limit).  

2.  When riding slowly, another rider will shoot past me on the left, in a gap which may be no more than an inch or two wider on each side, than the rider's handlebars.  The most outstanding - that is to say, egregious - example of this was last month, as I was coming up Tooley Street where it becomes Duke Street Hill.  The road was pretty busy, and traffic was at a standstill all the way down to the entrance to the posh shops on the riverside.  As I was coming up, a car was waiting to pull out from Tooley Street, indicating right to go up Duke Street Hill, so I slowed as I couldn't get past safely.  On my left was a small van - Transit size and at no more than five or six feet from my elbow.  Suddenly, 'out of nowhere', appeared a cyclist on my left, squeezed between me, right shoulder brushing my left elbow, and then tottering up Duke Street Hill.  

3.  Pulling out without looking.  There I am, cycling along at (depending on how knackered I am) 13-25 mph in a bus lane.  There's a bus stopped ahead of me, so I'll do the ol' lifesaver thing and glance over my right shoulder and start to pull into the next 'live' lane, if it's free.  Ahead of me will be another cyclist - closer to the bus but going more slowly.  As I'm about 20 feet behind the bus and aiming to pass it on the right, this cyclist will - without a single effing glance over the shoulder and without signalling, pull right out into my path.   

And almost every single time that I witness the above behaviour, it is exhibited by a female rider.  Not exclusively, of course.  A lot of men ride like utter twats, too.  But almost every time, it's a female.  In the third one I have mentioned, I remember on one occasion, exasperated by this behaviour, I said, 'next time, try looking!' as I swerved out to pass.  'I did!' she responded.  Well, she didn't, because I would have seen her head turn (and I watched my helmet cam footage later on and confirmed: she had not looked) - but even if she were not lying, claiming that she had in fact seen me but decided nonetheless to pull into the path of another vehicle, sort of explains why so many of them are being mown down.  

Now, it goes without saying that it's no less a tragedy when a rider is killed, and if a car driver does something twattish and/or illegal, then he or she should be hammered and never let behind the wheel of a car again.   But considering that men ride a lot faster and (admittedly) take a lot more risks - not forgetting the fact that there are more of us - trying to explain away the gender disparity in accident statistics by 'nasty men slapping our bottoms' is just more of the feminist claptrap which has come to define that hate movement.

@Legs_Eleven_Worcester - sounds like confirmation bias to me.

There's certainly lots of cyclists around with poor road-craft, but I prefer to celebrate that. Each person wobbling precariously on their bike is a person not sat in a car and is someone getting health/fitness benefits.

It's easy to predict that a cyclist is going to overtake a slow/stationary bus, so give them plenty of room to do so safely (which usually means slowing down to their speed for passing the bus and then zooming off afterwards).

Overtaking on the left is not a good idea (filtering excepted, though) and to be honest I'm surprised that you have more women doing that to you than men. The usual archetype is that male cyclists are the more aggressive/speed focused gender and the way you describe the undertake makes it sound like a move born out of frustration.

Anyhow, we want people with poor road skills to be going out and about on bikes rather than being cooped up in a deadly tonne of metal. Damage limitation - get as many idiots onto bikes as possible.

Just a small one, but I have heard the comment 'Cycling gives you big legs' more than once when fitness was being discussed. We all know meeting government activity targets by bike won't turn you into Robert Forstemann, but the lithe yoga instructor or light long distance runner image maybe more aspirational for many.

Of course saftey is the big one. I wouldn't encourage anyone who's (understandably) nervous about that to take to the main roads.

I'm with Davel here I'm afraid.

We often ride around the Peaks and cross wheels with the GB development squad, I have to admit that some of them are considerably better on a bike than me, with or without a penis (them not me)?

Your confirmation bias perhaps comes from observation of completely different people irrespect of gender. If you're a weekend warrior the likelihood is you see more males cycling, the same if you're an inner city commuter. These are then also likely to want to own the road. On the other hand, you may also then see Doris bimbling along with a basket to purchase a loaf of bread, her aim is to ride slowly and safely to the shop and not come into conflict with Jo Subaru.

Regardless of their skill sets, I'd expect the responsible, qualified motorist to try not to hit them with their 2 tonnes of metal, surely you would too. Unless you rank the importance of their life based on their cycling skill set?

It is nice though that you get the better half to check your work before you post it out in the wild, which helmet fits best around a skull with a thumb attached?

I work in Kingston Upon Thames and the number of women who cycle in and around the town is larger than the typical percentages given for womans involvement in cycling.  There are, at times 30-50% of the bikes in the racks are of the type typically aimed at women i.e. step through frames, flowery graphics etc (I appreciate that this not a definite indicator of the sex of the rider).  Kingston is not a "dutch" paradise despite the efforts of the local council but there is just enough infrastructure to make cycling appear to be safe and you can see the infrastructure from your car as you queue on the inner ring road.  Cycling also allows you to get right into the town as most of it is pedestrianised rather than walking from the car parks outside the inner ring.  

There are also push forces, parking is expensive and you often have to queue for spaces at busy times. 

Woman want to be safe (doesn't everybody) if you make it safe they will cycle

From the horse's mouth - "This is why I'm too scared to cycle in Bristol" by Bronwen Weatherby for Bristol Live.

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/news-opinion/opinion-im-scared-cycle-...

No one’s ever blasted an air horn at me, but plenty of men try to scare me by driving past and shouting at me. It’s rarely intelligible, and most times it’s just a big grunty yell. So far no one has frightened me enough to even make me wobble, let alone fall off, which is presumably their hilarious intent. One van driver tried it when I was filtering past him in stationary traffic, but the surprise was rather spoiled by the fact that I’d seen him spot me in the wing mirror and then say something to his passenger and it hadn’t taken much to figure out his scheme.

I wonder if there’s also something more general about the distances folks traveL to work.  I grew up near Blackpool, and my Mum taught in a local secondary school.  She can’t drive, and so cycled every day, in ordinary clothes on a bike like a Raleigh Shopper, with a basket on the front.  The total distance would have  been a couple of miles, and so she didn’t worry about the issues mentioned.

Well, that escalated rather quickly.

Shovel it was then.

Update.

My wife has started cycling a bit more - brand new car got doored in the car park of the toddler dance class, so she's now cycling there to prevent a recurrence. Little one absolutely loves it and wants to go further.

My sister has considered cycle commuting, but ongoing treatment for a sciatic nerve problem is putting her off at the moment.

Maybe in many cases it's just a simple thing like "I've got a car". That's one purchase that stops a lot of people from cycling.

Perhaps a small part of the reason is that women are more willing to practice yoga？

Timtak I think you mean vulva - the external genitalia? I agree more information available for women that there are different designs of saddles available could help.

I've cycled for the last 2.5 years, been a runner for 5 years. Late starter with cycling (in my 40s). 

I started cycling because I wanted to try and do a bike commute, and also because I enjoy exploring and you can cover more miles on a bike! Helmut hair doesn't bother me, and I do have long hair.

I commute  in most weathers (not ice) and do a commute twice a week which is 18 miles each way. When the evenings get lighter then I add on to the journey back to 25-30 miles if possible.

The commute is on rural roads that aren't really busy but the traffic is moving faster (40+mph) than in a town. There's no street lighting either so had a bit of trial and error with getting a suitable light. The roads are in very poor condition, lots of potholes.

What puts me off? Well the same as what actually stops my DH from cycling - idiot drivers! He's very nervous and after some close encounters he's very reluctant to go out now.

I try not to let it bother me but sometimes it does get to you. I loathe roundabouts, people round here seem to treat stopping at them as optional. I hate shared use cycle paths, as others have written, the users behave unpredictably. I end up cycling so slowly to allow time for avoidance/braking etc that I prefer to take my chances with the road.

Women like to talk. (joke)

Women have a vagina. Cutting to the chase.

Perhaps the most important thing about improving cycling speed is to get into more aerodynamic torso-horizontal form so that your chest is not acting as a drag racing parachute to the wind.
Cycling is about form. Good form is possible, if you have a very bendy back, to sit on your bottom and curl the top of your back over to get into an aerodynamic position, but by far the easiest way to get long and low is pivot around so that you are sitting on the place were, whatever sex you are, your bits, gonads (?), sex organs are.

I think that hollow saddles can solve the pressure issues that arise but not everyone knows about, or at least uses hollow saddles, and most new bikes do not come with hollow saddles as standard. When women get to know about hollow saddles, they may be more into road cycling since supporting oneself  with that area of the body is even more fraught for them than it is for us, in my humble opinion, without first hand knowledge.

I’m female and have cycled for the last 8 years. I commute all year, all weathers, long road rides on the weekends, cycle tour during warmer months and use bike paths/bridle ways for after work bimbles so that covers a bit I think. I don’t drive.

I actually think I get less harassed being female, I think there was a study about the “pony tail effect” but I don’t feel that I’m more harassed being a woman. But you do have altercations and I can give it back too! Some Chavs on the cycle path wolf whistle at me on the way back home but they always clear out of the way and don’t give me bother so who cares?

It’s hard for me to remember how intimidating it was when I first started, sure I used to ride too far to the side and all that. I got stuck in fast, cleats on first ride on road bike and subsequent hilarious falls didn’t seem to dent me. I was scared though but I just did it, I wanted to.

Traffic is not great, will always avoid/minimise horrible roads/roundabouts. This definitely puts women off, so many people (male &female) tell me I’m “brave” which tells you how they feel about things.

I actually cycled for fitness before I became a hardcore commuter. For trivial reasons like the fact I used to straighten my hair every morning haha! I don’t now! I mean I’m no Kim Kardashian but at first changing in a toilet cubicle and trying to sort appearance was a bit daunting. I don’t mean to say women are frivolous or overly vain but you can look pretty disheveled after riding into headwind in rain, red faced, snotty, sweaty! There is no place where I can plug in a hair dryer in my office for a quick blast so I just have to take the hit on appearance.

Well if you live 20 miles away from your work and you don’t already cycle you aren’t just going to suddenly ride in tomorrow- man or woman. Lots of people live very very close though. People drive into work who live less than a mile away. What can you do about those people? If I had to ride 15 miles each way for work that would be around my cut off I reckon. It would depend on the roads again though. If they were brutal, busy then no. A male friend gave up his longer commute after just having too many horrible NDE’s.

Weather is weather, its hardly ever too bad. Britain is a temperate country. Get some waterproofs, ride in the wind it makes you stronger! Got some spiked tyres this year for ice, they’re great. Even in Holland cycling heaven its windy as hell and rainy.

Cycle lanes are a joke full of pedestrians and cars usually. A load of useless ones have sprung up near me and I’ve had had incidents with cars already on them. Usually an afterthought that can lead you into bad road positioning that you’d otherwise avoid, plonk you out into traffic that is not expecting you. I would not rely on these alone-do a Bikeability course as well. These helped my male partner with confidence and good road positioning.

I like hills, lower gearing helps loads, I’m not fast but enjoy the challenge and find flat routes boring. I also seek out some on the way home from work as every little helps. Its hard but that’s sort of the point, you do get better.

I did a bike maintenance class a few months into riding as it did worry me that besides changing punctures I knew eff all about the bike. It’s rewarding knowing how to do some things for you self.. I see women only maintenance classes advertised now, when I did mine I was the only woman which might make some feel self-conscious. I built up a very nice track bike and I can now choose framesets and parts and swap bits round.

Cycling can be as expensive or as inexpensive as you’d like it to be. The Bike 2 work scheme is a good starting point, most workplaces offer it, to women as well as men! Certainly cheaper than driving and its cheaper for a bike to work scheme monthly payment than a two zone monthly bus pass where I live. I figure I don’t drive so I can spend it on posh bikes and jerseys. I’d want to either know about cycling or have a mate who did before buying second hand in case it was trashed/nicked.

Somebody above mentioned carrying things which is true if you are wanting to pick up groceries etc. My commuter has front and rear racks, I carried an huge amount of stuff home on it last night, having a useful bike is useful!