A national effort to address the gender gap in cycling

The vast majority of bicycling in the U.S. is done by men.  More and more, cyclists and cycling advocates across the country are seeing this as a serious problem that needs to be solved.  

Streetsblog reports:

Women have been called an “indicator species” of a bike-friendly city because they tend to pedal more in places that are safe and practical for biking. But on those counts, the United States has some work to do.

In 2009, the last time good data was released, less than a quarter of bike trips in the U.S. — 24 percent — were made by women. Some cities are performing better than others: In Boston and Philadelphia, women make 32 percent of bike trips. In San Francisco, it’s 33 percent.

Still, we’ve got a long way to go compared to places where the gender gap has been closed. In the Netherlands, women account for 55 percent of bike trips. In Germany, it’s 49 percent. According to Bikes Belong, nearly all of the growth in cycling in the U.S. over the past two decades has come from men between the ages of 25 and 64.

So what exactly is the problem? It seems to be combination of things, ranging from the quality of U.S. bike infrastructure to the availability of bike products designed for women’s tastes. The League of American Bicyclists recently issued a report, Women on a Roll, which lays out five key factors that get more women riding.

“It seems like such a nebulous and complex issue,” said Carolyn Szczepanski, director of the league’s Women Bike program. “But there are certain things that when you look at the research, come up over and over again.”

The number one factor is establishing better infrastructure — “comfort,” they call it. There’s a lot of research that shows lack of adequate bike infrastructure is holding women back from bicycling. Cities that have made great strides in cycling infrastructure have seen the share of female cyclists rise. In Portland, for instance, it rose from 21 percent in 1992 to 31 percent in 2012.

More info: Women Cycling Project

Encouraging more men and women to bicycle more often and building a world-class network of bicycle facilities are two of the top goals of MoBikeFed's Vision for Bicycling and Walking in Missouri.  Your membership and support helps turn our vision to reality!