Originally Posted by tjspiel

A few years ago I started a thread asking what sort of barriers existed that made it difficult for women to commute. Mostly the barriers were the same as they were for men, just in different degrees. There were some exceptions.

I don't remember if the brake reach/hand strength thing came up but it highlights the reason why the questions like "why are there fewer women commuters? " should be asked. Now, I don't know if that's the kind of thing that stops someone from commuting but it very easily could make somebody less comfortable on a bike. Perhaps something like that in combination with enough other things that may be insignificant on their own is enough to make bike commuting not very appealing.

As a lefty I'm a little bit more sensitive to how the design and layout of things can be annoying for people who don't fit the mold. And the people that do fit the mold are often clueless that it could ever be an issue. But once it is recognized that it is a problem, solutions are often not all that hard.



sorry that's happened to you. I'm a little biased of course but I think having mom or dad transport the kids is via bike demonstrating the sort of healthy lifestyle that a lot of kids in the US sadly do not get enough exposure to. I mean jeez, do you yell at parents when they bring in their kids into a McDonalds?

We got our own share of judgmental comments when we let our son ride his bike alone a couple of miles to school in 6th grade. We certainly had our fears as well but now he's a Freshman in high school who will hop on his bike to hang out with his friends a few miles away. They're outside and not plopped on the couch playing video games all day. I'm very happy about that.