Getting our gals on two wheels, for the sake of the city
While waiting for my little ones to wake up on this “PD Day” Friday, I came across this series of videos from LA-based cycling activist Dorothy Le. She was highlighted on Grist, as one of the “40 People Who Are Redefining Green“. Here’s what they had to say about Le:
Dorothy Le wants to get you out and about on two wheels. Not sure where to start? Watch her series of videos on how to find the bike that’s right for you. At the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition, she works to make the archetypal car-obsessed city more welcoming to cyclists and to make the cycling community more welcoming to women and people of color. Le has organized community bike tours, women’s bicycle rides, safety workshops, a bicycle count. While a student at UCLA, she led E3: Ecology, Economy, Equity, an environmental and social-justice organization, and helped launch the Green Initiative Fund, a grant-making fund for sustainability projects on the UCLA campus.
Part One - How To Buy A Bike with Dorothy Le
Part Two - How To Buy A Bike with Dorothy Le
Part Three - How To Buy A Bike with Dorothy Le
One thing I loved about Dorothy’s video series, is that it is aimed squarely at the demographic we want to attract: non-cycling women. Research shows that our mothers/wives/sisters just do not ride as often as men. From Le’s YouTube channel:
To celebrate the introduction of its new collection for women, Quiksilver has selected six independent and creative young women to be Visionaries in Residence at Quiksilver’s siteLA, a communal work and exhibition space in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles.
The residency program is a year-long engagement for women working in and across creative cultural fields. Like sponsored athletes, their personal passions echo the Quiksilver spirit: progressive, creative and confident. Although they have been selected for their independent projects, they share a communal workspace and together create public programs and host special events at siteLA.
Much like the professional athletes whom Quiksilver is notorious for supporting, these women will benefit from Quiksilver’s vast network of resources and will have access to tangible and promotional assistance, as well as mentors and connectors who will help them pursue their passions and expose their personal projects.
By making cycling easy and accessible through art, Le (and by default, her collective Quicksilver siteLA) hopes to get as many women on two wheels as possible. According to Scientific American, women have been called a “Indicator Species” when it comes to the health of a cities bicycling environment.
An emerging body of research suggests that a superior strategy to increase pedal pushing could be had by asking the perennial question: What do women want?
In the U.S., men’s cycling trips surpass women’s by at least 2:1. This ratio stands in marked contrast to cycling in European countries, where urban biking is a way of life and draws about as many women as men—sometimes more. In the Netherlands, where 27 percent of all trips are made by bike, 55 percent of all riders are women. In Germany 12 percent of all trips are on bikes, 49 percent of which are made by women.
“If you want to know if an urban environment supports cycling, you can forget about all the detailed ‘bikeability indexes’—just measure the proportion of cyclists who are female,” says Jan Garrard, a senior lecturer at Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia, and author of several studies on biking and gender differences.
The more women your city has riding it’s streets, the better your cycling infrastructure. How does Windsor’s infrastructure rate according to Windsor’s women cyclists? Why are women reluctant to ride?
What’s stopping women from cycling? from ibikelondon on Vimeo.
So, what do you feel we need to do to make the idea of cycling more appealing to women? Do we need more advocacy groups like the Cycling Sisters in Chicago, or Portlands municipal-led Women On Bikes?
Can the city increase the number of women cyclists, thereby making Windsor a more bike-friendly city?
Hey Ladies! What would you need to see happen in Windsor to get you out on your bike more?
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Personally, I’d like to see some type of multi-use trail run along Tecumseh Road. We’ve got plenty of east-west corridors in the city (Riverside, Wyandotte, Giles, Ottawa, Tecumseh), but none that have a continuous bike trail/lane. When asking cyclists what road they feel the most at risk on, it’s Tecumseh. And most accidents that happen, happen there.
Driver education is also a big factor. Many people don’t ride because they don’t want to ride on the road. If driver’s understand that cyclists belong on the road, hopefully a greater tolerance will surface. This will make cyclists feel safer.
I’d have to agree with Kari. Without a continuous trail, it makes it harder and more intimidating to ride, especially to women who rarely ride. It might frighten women away, having to ride on busy roads without a trail or bike lane.
Also. Some women are really busy, and don’t have the time to find the perfect bike and start riding. Maybe we do need something like the cycling sisters. It would get women more interested in riding, especially if the chose to ride with their friends and close family.
-Olivia
The Dougall underpass! If there was a bike path to get me past that safely, I’d be riding everyday. I won’t ride there now. I have children. I need to get home alive to take care of them!
This is an interesting thread. There are lots of gender issues that are connected to this: is it as acceptable for women to show up for work with sweaty, with flat hair or in casual clothes? Are women’s clothes designed for them to be able to move comfortably (our shoes certainly aren’t)? Are women who are ‘athletic’ considered as professional / attractive as their more demure colleagues?
As a woman who regularly commutes to work on a bike, I recognize that we are quite rare because of many of the above issues. My female colleagues are not prepared to come to work in flat shoes, or with flat hair or short nails because of societal expectations of how they are expected to look. Is it right, no. Is it reality, yes.
Margaret raises some valid points. Cycling is so much safer in Europe that people don’t wear helmets - so they don’t worry about messing their hair. They do however ride in what they wear to work, even if that means riding in business attire. I have seen women ride in high heels before, and it didn’t look that detrimental. I guess it depends on the length of your commute.
HPT - The environmental assessment for the Dougall box is budgeted for this year. Hopefully that means some progress for bike infrastructure in that area soon.
Women are an indicator species of cycling because they are less likely to engage in risky behaviour. If women feel safe to ride, it is a sign that it is a safe city to ride in because the infrastructure is there.
I would love to see a “Cycling Sisters” or “Women on Bikes” here in Windsor, but then I’d just love to see more people get involved in cycling advocacy overall in Windsor!
Oh, and as a follow-up regarding to feeling safe cycling on the streets - a survey of Ontarians found that 60% would like to cycle more often, and the primary reason they don’t is that they are “worried about safety on the road”.
In the latest issue of Bicycling Magazine. Article on the best cycling city in the U.S. - spoiler alert, it’s NOT Portland, Or.
The city of Minneapolis, Mn. was named the best cycling city by Bicycling Magazine. The article highlights a number of programs and events - a number of which are for women only.
http://thehubbikecoop.org/
hosts 2 women only rides each week.
I completely agree with Margaret’s commentary on the gender issues we women face. I think they play a big role in Windsor, which is after all, a largely traditional and fairly conservative city.
In addition, I think most women have a different view on *perceived* danger than most men. It’s the same reason why a higher ratio of men tend to participate in high adrenalin sports. In Windsor, our main arterial roads are perceived to be dangerous for bikes, and most women don’t cycle because they need to use those roads on at least part of their journey.
It would be interesting to survey high school girls on this subject. You would think that concern for the environment and mobility would be more important to them than helmet hair. Given how few girls are seen riding around, there are probably many other factors at play. If we could tap into what’s going on there, it might be possible to begin to address the issues.
Cheers to Margaret and Philippa.
Another note on the gender issue: a lot of my driving is bringing children to activities and doing family errands like groceries. It isn’t practical to cycle to activities because as they get older, their activities get farther away. There’s barely enough time between school’s out and start of activity for food let alone cycling! And then usually it’s dark out by the time we’re getting home. I’ve done groceries on foot and by bike before and it means going much more often. I just don’t have time to make extra trips.
I do cycle when weather’s good and I’m making a solo trip — but only if I have enough time to make it home before my family needs me again.
I’d be curious about what sorts of trips men are making — are they family related like this or are they primarily solo? If I was a single person without children or someone else was the family’s primary caregiver I’d probably be able to cycle a lot more.
Great discussion everyone. I’ll accept the invitation to weigh in as a male cyclist. Most of my trips are commuting from home (Tecumseh & Ouellette area) to downtown–a pretty gentle route–along with weekend trips for small amounts of groceries or the newspaper.
We do the occasional recreational trip as a couple. We would both probably appreciate a really safe link between our neighbourhood and the river front trail.
It will be interesting to see how my cycling patterns change when we become parents in June. It’s encouraging to read Chris’ comment that drivers give trailers a wide berth.
As an aside, my hat goes off to Nicole, that’s quite a commute!
Good point Candace.
Are men cycling as commuters or as recreational riders? I don’t see that many commuters in general.
This is awesome! I really wasn’t going to chime in and sway the discussion (I REALLY want the gals to come to their own conclusions without any guys muddying the waters) but Candace asked.
I never do any recreational cycling any more. All my bike trips replace car trips, but not all of my car trips. With that being said, my kids are older and able to travel along on their own without my guidance. When the kids were younger though, I had a child trailer and used it often. It is now my grocery getter, and I have no regrets whatsoever in investing the money to buy it.
I found that motorists gave me an incredibly wide berth when riding on the roads with that child trailer. In fact, for the most part (and I always ride on the road) I find that motorists usually give me plenty of space. Maybe it is the fact that men are less averse to risk than women that keep the the ratio tilted towards male dominance.
The cycling gender ratios in the Netherlands and Denmark must be the way they are (basically equal) due to the fact that women feel safer riding there than here in N. America. They have a ton of cycling-only infrastructure (separated bike lanes, bike traffic signals, etc.) geared towards to utilitarian cyclist over the recreational ones. Yes, they have recreational paths, but they most definitely cater to the daily users.
The reason I wanted to ask this question publicly is because the city has allocated very limited funds for cycling purposes. Those funds are spread out between educational purposes and infrastructure investments. It is clear that we’re not allocating enough $$$ to do both well, so is the city’s focus (or you could call it a shotgun approach) going to work? Should we choose one avenue over the other at this point? What would make women feel more safe on their bikes, allocating %100 of funds to infrastructure in a bid to build more cycling amenities, or dedicate it to the education of motorists to try and get them to pay cyclists more respect (If you ask me, the “danger” on the road is mostly in cyclist’s heads. I really don’t believe that educating our motorists would be a good expenditure of limited cycling funds. Motorists aren’t targeting cyclists or treating them any different than they do other motorists. The bad ones treat everyone like jerks, and we could pour every cent of ours into trying to change that to no avail!)
Or do we continue on the way we are, knowing full well that what we’re doing really isn’t working? I would love to see discussions like this give some concrete suggestions to municipal decision-makers so they can actually make a positive difference!
Phillipa - if you want to ask questions from a highschool girl, ask Olivia above. She’s my daughter and she rides fairly frequently.
I live near Howard and Tecumseh, and I work in St Clair Beach. As a non driver, I take my bike when the weather is reasonable.
I would love to see East-West bike routes, as others have suggested. I would also like to see the North-South routes extended to cover Tecumseh to Riverside in order to have a grid of sorts. I’d even be willing to have LESS bike lanes N-S if they were better connected.
Diver education is also a must. I don’t know how to do that, but it is necessary. Biking west on Wyandotte near Lauzon recently, I was nearly hit by several cars, and 2 of them proceeded to throw cigarette butts and garbage out the window just after passing me.
There is a nascent dialogue about the needs of our aging population courtesy of groups like the World Health Organization and the International Longevity Centre, that asserts that society is not prepared to accommodate an aging population and that communities everywhere need to have a meaningful social dialogue on aging. Aging boomers are being encouraged to establish support systems by being engaged, active and socially connected and to live in communities that make this possible!
This brings me to the bicycle boulevard. Emerging research is addressing boomers’ lifestyle concerns. Not only are we living longer, we are remaining active and independent longer. We want community facilities that reflect these realities. As aging boomers we face physical and lifestyle challenges that come with aging. Unfortunately, public infrastructure has not caught up to our growing needs and growing numbers.
An environmental assessment conducted on Riverside Drive several years ago came to the conclusion that bike lanes would be a suitable addition to the Drive. A bike lane is nothing more than a roadway widened by 1.2 metres (47”) on each side, and separated from traffic by a painted line. In some quiet, lightly-trafficked universe that might be practical, but Riverside Drive carries traffic volumes that average 18,000 cars a day!
Cyclists and non-cyclists alike intuit that there is something wrong with this scenario and research is proving that peoples’ common sense, as opposed to the wishful theories of traffic engineers, is spot-on when it comes to the efficacy of bike lanes.Forty seven inches of bike lane beside heavy vehicular traffic may be appropriate for fit, experienced riders with good reflexes, but statistics show that these are typically younger, adult males and they represent a very small percentage of the available cycling public.
Bike lanes discriminate against women, who have a higher perception of risk than men, and also discriminate against the elderly, who have physical challenges such as hearing loss or injury, attendant problems with vertigo and balance and slower reflexes. If you’re an elderly woman, you’re doubly screwed.
If you gather up all the research, there are inescapable conclusions. One University of Calgary researcher concluded that “barriers, bicycle paths and other design features that separate the cyclist from traffic…or remove through traffic are effective measures for reducing bicycle-related injuries” in adults (Canadian Guide to Clinical Preventive Health Care, Elford R.W.).
A fresh start for Windsor as a retirement community will depend on modifying our environment. The first steps toward modifying our environment cannot be about cars, it must be about transportation. Those two words are not interchangeable and when we start talking about active transport we are talking about pedestrians, cyclists, people in wheelchairs, inline skating and any other form of human-powered transportation.
Several respectable research agencies such as Statistics Canada and the Victoria Transport Policy Institute, suggest that bike lanes, as described above, are used by only 2-4% of the population. Listening to some of the local discussion about why cyclists prefer to ride on the sidewalk instead of the road or even in the bikelanes, it’s not difficult to sympathise with the general fear that people have about riding in close proximity to traffic. As we mature as a society, let’s put our accumulated common sense to good use and provide facilities that work for everyone.
Interesting discussion.
Once I gave up wearing “cylcing gear” on my commute and showering once at work, and decided to wear normal clothes and ride slower (less sweat) I began to commute by bike a LOT more.
Now, the only days I wear high heels to work are the days I cycle. Why? Walking to the bus stop in those things is a killer, but cycling in them, no problem.
Another problem: There aren’t a lot of female friendly or good commuter bikes on the market. Where are the chain guards, fenders and skirt guards on bikes sold in Windsor? I can’t find them.