Lack of safety: a growing concern for women who want to ride a bike

While the infrastructure of Sydney is growing to build more cycleways in the city, the number of women riding bicycles seems to be at a constant low.

Although the active transport systems in Sydney have increased, safety issues and awareness have caused women to rely on private vehicles rather than cycling or walking.

Peter McLean, CEO of Bicycle NSW (an advocacy group in Sydney) said “Sydney has lower riders than the national outreach. It’s disappointing. Females have a much lower participation rate of 17-18% across NSW.

“60% of women illustrate safety and injury concerns; 55% of women talk about aggressive drivers, which is a barrier to riding and one of the main issues”.

According to a study published by Monash University, young people have higher participation. 42% of riders are young girls who cycle for fun or sports. Although, the number drastically declines in adulthood.

“There are only a few percentages of women from the age group of 18–29 years, which is not great at all. The percentage goes down even further to 3% for women above 50 years, which is lower than I thought it was as compared to males”, said McLean.

“We need to be working on awareness and cultural change”.

“Women need a safer space where car riders are more accepting of bike riders, along with separated cycleways.

While some think that lack of safety is a growing concern, other factors that affect the women riders is just a convenience issue.

Yvonne Poon, Vice President of BikEast, (a volunteer group) said “There are a lot more women cyclists than before including families which have a wider range in numbers.

“As girls become teenagers, they feel less encouraged to cycle. Other factors such as socialization or cycling not being cool enough any more also contribute towards the low numbers of women riders”.

“At the moment, the cycleways in the city are still disconnected in networks.

“Women generally don’t cycle from point A to point B; they run errands, which requires them to stop at different locations”.

Poon says, “It is important to have those connections for them to run errands as they don’t feel there is enough infrastructure to do that”.

“There are a lot of programs who encourage and push women towards getting on a bike, where they teach you - where to ride and communicate and be familiar with the surroundings”.