Research from Australia has taken a deep dive into the factors that prevent women from cycling in urban areas, creating a list of suggestions for boosting active travel in a more inclusive way.

Reported by Government News, the research was undertaken by Monash University’s Sustainable Mobility and Safety Research Group, Dr Lauren Pearson noting that in Melbourne’s most built-up areas there are two men cycling for every woman.

“Gender differences were stark in terms of the barriers,” she said. “We were really surprised at just how substantial these differences were, and how many women were reporting these concerns.”

Pop-up cycle lane on Park Lane (copyright Simon MacMichael)
Pop-up cycle lane on Park Lane (copyright Simon MacMichael) (Image Credit: Farrelly Atkinson)

Having surveyed 717 women across 10 Melbourne areas, Dr Pearson was able to assess the factors preventing more women from cycling, research that showed 77 per cent of women are interested in riding a bike, suggesting “massive potential” for enabling active travel further.

One such suggestion that came from the survey was segregation, the study noting that physical separation from motor traffic “may support more women to ride a bike through reducing motor vehicle interactions”, something many said they lacked confidence with.

Compared to men the survey showed that the women were less comfortable with the idea of cycling near traffic, and would be encouraged by segregated cycle lanes. Nearly half of the women surveyed said well-lit areas are an enabler of them cycling.

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“It’s about planning for the trips that aren’t taken as well as those that are,” Dr Pearson said. “Women want to make local trips and we need to make sure we’re building the infrastructure to support this, not just thinking about the people that are already riding, and having that gender lens on all design decisions.”

She went on to explain how in Australian cities councils have built infrastructure based on where the highest cycling volumes are, something that does not necessarily reflect women’s needs, and suggested more separated infrastructure for local routes.

Dr Pearson also suggested council-run maintenance courses and better mechanical support could help, the survey finding that women were less confident than men with buying and maintaining a bicycle.

“We found of all the women who were asked about what would happen if they had a flat tyre, they said they had no idea, in contrast to men,” she continued. “That came back to this entrenched discourse around mechanics and bikes being a male-based thing.

“Some women tried to reach out to councils for bike mechanics courses, but what was available was very specialist or run by men for men.”

While physical fitness was identified as a barrier, a higher proportion of women said not having enough storage on a bike was a barrier and Dr Pearson pointed to e-bikes and cargo bikes as possible enablers for people to access active travel.