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What's going on? Why don't more U.S. women ride bikes?

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What's going on? Why don't more U.S. women ride bikes?

Old 06-20-11, 11:50 PM
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What's going on? Why don't more U.S. women ride bikes?

Read the full article here:
https://www.grist.org/biking/2011-06-...economy-stupid

The two theories you hear bandied about the most are fear and fashion.

A widely cited 2009 study found that women are more likely to choose to ride on quiet residential streets, while men are more likely to choose direct routes even if they have heavier traffic. Women are an "indicator species" for cycling, this study concludes, and that cities can cajole greater women ridership by building safer-feeling bike infrastructure.

Much is also made of another concern women often express in surveys -- that cycling to work will impede our ability to conform to professional norms in clothing, makeup, and hairstyles. The response can be seen in the proliferation of the "Cycle Chic" brand, tweed rides, and the commingling of bicycling and high fashion in advertising.

There's plenty of truth in both the fear and fashion theories. But before we commit to blaming women's transportation practices on our timidity and vanity, I think it's worth looking at some other potential factors.

Like the economy.
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Old 06-21-11, 12:37 AM
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Where is the original data for this study?
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Old 06-21-11, 12:44 AM
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The average American adult female is 5'4", 175 lbs. She doesn't ride because she is too fat to be comfortable on a bike. Because she doesn't exercise, she gets fatter. It's a tough cycle to break.
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Old 06-21-11, 06:40 AM
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Originally Posted by B. Carfree
The average American adult female is 5'4", 175 lbs. She doesn't ride because she is too fat to be comfortable on a bike. Because she doesn't exercise, she gets fatter. It's a tough cycle to break.

Being overweight is a tough cycle to break, but it's equally if not more true for the men, so that can't be the reason. Here you go, more american women are of a healthy weight than are men: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhanes/...dultweight.pdf

I suppose there could be more of an embarrassment factor for overwight women trying to get fit, since women are generally more self-conscious about their shape. I certainly have a few female friends who won't exercise publically until they reach an 'acceptable' weight. It's too bad, because exercising in your basement is typically a recipe for failure.

I agree about the fear factor. Also, women tend to take longer to get themselves put together, so messing up the hair and make-up isn't done lightly... a splash-off in the bathroom sink at work just doesn't restore the appearance.

Could it be a lack of role models? When we think of a cyclist, whether a racer, recreational, or a commuter, I imagine most of us picture a guy. Women maybe just don't see themselves on bikes.

Clubs can also have a big influence on whether they attract women. In one city I lived in, the local club had women's rides and a very supportive environment... and roughly half the regulars at rides were women. In the city I'm in now, it's just one group who rides regularly, and they're fast. Result; most men get discouraged after trying to hang on, and I'm one of only 2 girls who come out.

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Old 06-21-11, 07:00 AM
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The boston marathon has a much higher percentage of women than most marathons and that is a mere 42%. It would appear as though women are not as drawn to endurance activities for one or many reasons.

Personally my wife rides to work on occasion, but she has already been scared off of one route because of aggressive drivers. She also has to bring a full change of clothes and related paraphernalia in order to get made up once she is there. She does enjoy it, but she puts in a lot more effort to do it than I do since I ride with work clothes and only splash some water if needed.
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Old 06-21-11, 07:02 AM
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Originally Posted by B. Carfree
The average American adult female is 5'4", 175 lbs. She doesn't ride because she is too fat to be comfortable on a bike. Because she doesn't exercise, she gets fatter. It's a tough cycle to break.
You don't get thin riding a bike, you get thin watching your caloric intake. Riding a bike may help, but it is by no means a strong correlation.
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Old 06-21-11, 07:36 AM
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Originally Posted by B. Carfree
The average American adult female is 5'4", 175 lbs. She doesn't ride because she is too fat to be comfortable on a bike. Because she doesn't exercise, she gets fatter. It's a tough cycle to break.
that's a grossly inaccurate statement. What did you do, just make those misogynistic averages thing up? Regardless of your depiction of the average american female being way, way off -people that are overweight can't exercise on a bike because they aren't comfortable as they are too large?

what the********** Obviously there's one person already out to lunch.

There are significant barriers to participation in bicycling in this country, for both men and women.

whatever combination of environment, culture, or vanity precludes people from riding bikes for fun and everyday transport, one thing is clear:

people worried about riding bikes don't ride bikes. I talk to people everyday about bicycling. It's not people's size that's keeping people off bikes, bcarfree.

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Old 06-21-11, 08:14 AM
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Huh, for it to be the economy, women would have had to ride significantly more 5 years ago.
Also the women's equal pay argument does not hold for lower (sub $75k) income urban women, who in a number of studies make more than lower income urban men. I mention that since in her article she seems to be targeting them. And that has nothing to do with who keeps their jobs.

Across the board men make more, but in specific cases women do. So when you talk about urban lower income people heading to a service job, you can't say the men make more, or even get to keep their jobs. There are quite a few factors to take into account.

I think one of the only valid arguments is mothers may make more trips shuttling kids around, and therefore feel they need the car. Parents may be more likely to bike to work in urban areas, but less likely to let their kids bike and therefore drive them. Meanwhile in suburbs, parents may be too far and need to drive to work, but feel safer letting their kids bike.

I am not sure about the makeup argument. My S.O. bikes to work, she is an attorney, wears suits, yet makes it all work. Another woman I dated 2 years ago insisted on driving her huge SUV only 2 miles to work, and refused to take public transportation let alone bike. So, some people find a way to make things work, others don't.

I googled some of this just now, some of this is old. The first link of each section seems to be good.
Men being laid off more:
https://www.businessinsider.com/more-...ucation-2010-1
https://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/06/business/06women.html
Cases where women earn more:
https://news.change.org/stories/young...th-perspective
https://finance.yahoo.com/career-work...-more-than-men
https://money.cnn.com/2003/02/28/comm...hadi/index.htm

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Old 06-21-11, 08:50 AM
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My wife works less than two miles from our house, but I can't get her to even consider riding her bike to work. Her reasoning? "I'd have to shower and get ready in order to leave the house, then I'd have to shower and get ready again once I'm at work. Then when I get home I'd have to shower and get ready again. I don't have hours of free time to go through that routine more than once a day."

As a man, I can logically argue this from several directions. But my wife is not me, and after 17 years of marriage I've realized that she is not going to change.

I suspect her thinking is fairly common among American women. If I were a gambling man, I would bet that this is a large reason why more women don't ride bikes for non-recreational purposes.
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Old 06-21-11, 08:57 AM
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I recently heard a cycling advocate for TREK talk about this. She said the research showed it as a maternal instinct with women. Women's primary role is to protect children, if she is hurt, her children are hurt, so the large SUV represents a danger. As cycling infrastructure improves, the danger perception is gone, and she is more willing to ride. I assume this is mostly referring to mothers, and I didn't write down any of her references, but on the face of it, it sounds reasonable.
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Old 06-21-11, 09:19 AM
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Or is could be something as simple as the bicycle seat. They hurt. I got my wife to test ride a recumbent trike, and she said yes if I bought one she would share it with me and ride with me on a trike. Im saving my pennies for a Terratrike right now!
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Old 06-21-11, 09:58 AM
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I'm going to say fear, fashion, social issues and family. I was terrified to get on a bike at first. Going fast was hard. Traffic was scary. Hills were hard. 6 weeks later I'm looking at some high end performance bikes. Depending on your "fear factor" everything adds up. My fear factor is a bad back. The thought of falling off and putting my back out for a year leaves me on the timid side.

Fashion:

I had to get over it. There are some women's clothing out there but most of it made me look like I was pretending to be skinny when I wasn't. I'm going to say that a lot of women are insecure with their bodies. Look at women's magazines and even something on the men's side of Sports Illustrated or Maxim. We can't compete with super models and we know it. If the world considers those women as a standard of beauty, we fall short. The same with women who are into sports. If we don't think we are athletic, we don't want to be laughed at while trying to be.

I don't know what the "average" woman size is but the industries are doing much better at fitting clothing to all sizes and even bike sizes. Most retail stores just don't carry them and have to be special ordered. Unless the guy says something, I don't think most women know there are bikes out there for them. I didn't. Had I know there was a women's 29er, I would have bought that first instead of my Hardrock.

I'll be honest..women like pretty things. If the bike is ugly, chances are she won't buy it. It sounds superficial, but it's true. There are some pretty ugly bikes out there and no woman wants a pastel colored bike when they go into a women's style bike. We aren't 10.

Social Issues:

Women are extremely social and we've been raised that going out alone is potentially dangerous. I do worry about traveling 5+ miles out of town by myself. If there aren't other women around to cycle with, chances are a woman won't.

If we show up to work completely drenched from a 5 mile ride, it takes time to get a shower, put make-up on (depending on how much) and look professional.

Family:

You can't carry 300 dollars worth of groceries on a bike. You can't take your kids to all the places they need to be on a bike. If your significant other doesn't ride, then it goes back to social issues.

Depending on the age of your kids, you can't just leave for a couple of hours. If your significant other isn't supportive than it's harder to get out and ride if he isn't willing to help.

We are the primary caretakers and are taking care of the needs of our families. It's not demeaning by any means, it just takes a lot of our time. I like being a Mom. I like staying home with my kids. I've found that cycling relieves a lot of the stress and I can come back refreshed and ready to handle teenagers. I don't think women realize how empowering a bike really can be.

The price of a bike falls under family. I'm guessing a lot of women see that money as bill money, groceries, clothes, and all the other financial needs that are there. Spending that kind of money on herself makes it hard not to feel selfish when she knows the needs of her family.

Hope that helps out some.
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Old 06-21-11, 11:10 AM
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Originally Posted by Tundra_Man
My wife works less than two miles from our house, but I can't get her to even consider riding her bike to work. Her reasoning? "I'd have to shower and get ready in order to leave the house, then I'd have to shower and get ready again once I'm at work. Then when I get home I'd have to shower and get ready again. I don't have hours of free time to go through that routine more than once a day."

As a man, I can logically argue this from several directions. But my wife is not me, and after 17 years of marriage I've realized that she is not going to change.

I suspect her thinking is fairly common among American women. If I were a gambling man, I would bet that this is a large reason why more women don't ride bikes for non-recreational purposes.
Two miles is walkable... it might take 30 minutes either way, but then what is she doing for her health right now? Does she go to a gym? How much time is spent there? What is the cost of the gym.

If she isn't doing any exercise at all, then the health benefits of walking or cycling far far outweigh any time delay.
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Old 06-21-11, 11:34 AM
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Originally Posted by hshearer
Also, women tend to take longer to get themselves put together, so messing up the hair and make-up isn't done lightly... a splash-off in the bathroom sink at work just doesn't restore the appearance.
IMO a woman who's clearly been working out, hair tied back and has no makeup looks way better than one who's spent an hour getting ready. No woman has ever believed me when I say that though. I think women mainly dress up / makeup as a competition among themselves than anything else.
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Old 06-21-11, 11:38 AM
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Originally Posted by Bethany
no woman wants a pastel colored bike when they go into a women's style bike.
That's an interesting point. What's a "woman's style bike" anyway? historically that's been a bike with a low step-over, but that's just ridiculous. There's no reason for it, unless you're wearing a full skirt on a bike, which I have rarely seen. All that style does is to make the frame weaker or heavier (pick one). I wish the whole design would go away.
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Old 06-21-11, 11:44 AM
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Originally Posted by ItsJustMe
That's an interesting point. What's a "woman's style bike" anyway? historically that's been a bike with a low step-over, but that's just ridiculous. There's no reason for it, unless you're wearing a full skirt on a bike, which I have rarely seen. All that style does is to make the frame weaker or heavier (pick one). I wish the whole design would go away.
The low bar is also popular with the commuting bike in europe, why we have to stereotype them here is another discussion.
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Old 06-21-11, 11:47 AM
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Originally Posted by Bethany
You can't carry 300 dollars worth of groceries on a bike.
Bike trailers typically have a capacity of about 180 pounds. I'd guess that's easily $300 worth. If not, then go more often, especially if it's on the way home from work (or only a mile or two out of the way).
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Old 06-21-11, 12:06 PM
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My wife rides. The only thing she worries about is getting too much sun. Well living in Washington State most of the time, she has little to worry about
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Old 06-21-11, 12:30 PM
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Originally Posted by crhilton
Really? Did the thought occur to you that she doesn't want to ride and she's giving you what sound like logical reasons to get you to shut up and talk about something else? I've heard rationalizing from every gender and age and bad excuses are a constant.


I would guess that the fact that prep time is far longer for most western women has a lot to do with why women don't ride for transportation. But women also ride a lot less for recreation/exercise.
Ummm... you completely took my quote out of context. I wasn't saying that a woman isn't capable of making a logical argument. I was saying I can easily argue my side from a man's perspective, but I can't fully appreciate my wife's perspective because I'm not her. She does things that I don't understand, and I do things that she doesn't understand. Neither are necessarily wrong, they're just different. So the things that logically make sense in my head doesn't always equate with the things that logically make sense in her head.

And thank you for assuming that I've been harping on her for all 17 years of my marriage. I think I've suggested it maybe twice, tops.
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Old 06-21-11, 12:42 PM
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if women are concerned about how they look, they should know that chicks on bikes are hot
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Old 06-21-11, 12:42 PM
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Originally Posted by frantik
if women are concerned about how they look, they should know that chicks on bikes are hot
+100
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Old 06-21-11, 12:43 PM
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Originally Posted by Tundra_Man
Ummm... you completely took my quote out of context.
I'm married too; I understood your post perfectly.
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Old 06-21-11, 01:34 PM
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It took me way too long to get started after I had the interest. My main concerns were safety, sweat and physically being able to do it.

After reading a bunch here and elsewhere, I learned the basics of being reasonably safe on the road with cars. And the traffic has turned out to give me more room and be more courteous than I thought they would be. Close calls have been minimal and skills learned while riding motorcycles (side vision, watching all intersections, driveways, etc.) have come in handy.

I'm exceptionally lazy about my appearance, especially when going to work. Bike or no, I don't wear make-up and usually wear t-shirts & jeans. I was worried about the stink, but it hasn't been an issue. There is a shower here but I've never used it. I just bring a full change of clothes when it's hot enough to get sweaty. When I get here, I towel off, wait until the sweating stops and change clothes, reapply deodorant. Before I leave in the afternoon, I change back and slather on sun block. My hair is long so I just stick it in a bun or braids. No helmet head issues.

It took me about a month to work my fitness level up from sloth to 20mi/day bike commuter. And I've been doing that since August 1 last year, 2-3 times/week with longer rides on the weekend when I can manage. Furthest so far, 47 mi.

Oh yeah, another worry: breaking down. After I changed out my knobbies for commuter tires I realized that I could change a flat no problem. I carry everything I need to fix minor problems and ride worry free.
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Old 06-21-11, 01:48 PM
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Originally Posted by Tundra_Man
My wife works less than two miles from our house, but I can't get her to even consider riding her bike to work. Her reasoning? "I'd have to shower and get ready in order to leave the house, then I'd have to shower and get ready again once I'm at work. Then when I get home I'd have to shower and get ready again. I don't have hours of free time to go through that routine more than once a day."

As a man, I can logically argue this from several directions. But my wife is not me, and after 17 years of marriage I've realized that she is not going to change.

I suspect her thinking is fairly common among American women. If I were a gambling man, I would bet that this is a large reason why more women don't ride bikes for non-recreational purposes.
I don't understand why she would shower before riding to work to take another shower. That makes no sense to me, especially for such a short ride.

I am fortunate to have showers and lockers at work so that makes commuting convenient for me. I wear makeup at work, but it only takes me about 20 minutes to shower and get ready.

I think one of the things guys forget about is that women usually blow-dry their hair. When I had longer hair it could take 10 minutes to get it dry.
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Old 06-21-11, 02:58 PM
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I am temporarily living in a city of 400,000 people on the outskirts of Tokyo. Some observations, for what they're worth:
-Bikes are everywhere
-The majority of riders are female, of all ages from teens to seniors
-It is not at all unusual to see them hauling a little kid, or even two little kids, on specially designed carriers on their bikes. No trailers to be seen.
-The bikes are usually heavy, clunky, step-through frames (including those being piloted by guys), one or three speeds, North Road-style bars, big basket and rack, or baskets front and rear, or child carriers; chain guard or full chain case, skirt guard, generator light, and often a massive, heavy kickstand. Easily bought new for under $200 (child carrier extra); also a lot of folders and minis.
-Electric assist bikes are not uncommon
-I see lots of women going food shopping by bike. They are not buying a week's worth of groceries. I live in a big apartment complex and there are a couple of supermarkets that are 5 to 15 minutes away by bike.
-I work at a university, majority of the students are female. Bike parking areas are full every day (hundreds and hundreds of bikes, mostly of the type described above).
-Most of the riders that I see, especially female, appear to be going about their regular business, i.e. going to work, school, shopping. In the case of commuting this is likely to be a ride between home and a train station.
-They are not wearing any cycle-specific stuff (and that includes helmets by the way FWIW, although if they're hauling kids the kids usually are wearing one). They are obviously not taking showers before or after their rides.
-They look fine
-They don't smell
-Most of the roads are flat or only gently sloping -- but some hills are pretty steep.
-I'm guessing that most rides are short (let's say under 15 minutes / 2 miles)
-Massive bike parking lots outside of train stations, universities, and some shopping areas. Next to some train stations, multilevel bike parking structures, lots of 2-level racks with built-in locks.
-Most bikes are locked with ring locks on the rear wheel or with cables that are about as thick as a pencil through one of the wheels -- not to a post.
-Many ride on the sidewalks, which are often broad and uncrowded.
-Drivers around here, at least in my experience, cut cyclists plenty of slack as a matter of course, including cyclists who are riding on the road instead of the sidewalk -- perhaps because they're also cyclists themselves, or have been, or live with one?
-Um, did I mention that most of these cyclists are women?

Last edited by Pobble.808; 06-21-11 at 04:18 PM. Reason: additional details
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