Bike Forums - Mostly male commuters?

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That is my relationship. Just add home repairs and projects, subtract the boyfriend, add one wife, and whalla!... you have one dirty house. I'd rather ride than clean. Not going to kill myself because my wife is a lazy slob. Do I sound bitter? :p

Quote:

Originally Posted by Buglady

"Bite me, I refuse to live in YOUR fear.":D

Gotta make that into a small sign for the back of my bike!
Or the back of a bright yellow jersey!

Nice!

Quote:

Originally Posted by soze

I wonder if the lower numbers for women are in part because they tend to end up with more of the child care responsibilities in a relationship, hoofing kids around and whatnot.

YES!!!@#$ And this is so frustrating. My SO is a car-person, and he works all the time. Since bicycle commuting adds nearly 2 hours to the time I need a sitter, well, it's difficult.

Quote:

Originally Posted by banerjek

I don't think that's it. In the places I've worked, the single able bodied women don't do any better than their counterparts with kids.

I think it is because even most feminists seem to regard women as fragile and vulnerable. No one thinks anything of letting some guy walk about at night (nor should they), but I can't tell you how many times I've been the token man on hand to make even small groups of women feel "safe". I'm a scrawny 140lbs, so I'd be able to do little more than delay real attackers by more than 2 seconds while I got pulped. When I drove delivery years ago, women drivers never wanted to go to "unsafe" areas or where they felt "uncomfortable," so they'd send me or one of the other guys.

We seem to be conditioned to believe that it's OK for guys to take risks, but not women. Also, when things really go wrong, there is an expectation that guys will somehow adjust, but that women should be emotionally traumatized for life.

It could also be that men just like cycling more than women. The ratio of men to women runners seems much closer than it is for cyclists. Walkers seem to be predominantly women.

Well, for me, childcare issues are the reason why I can't commute 95% of the time. The other 5% of times I can't commute, it's a time issue, like I'm rushing to get a paper finished, etc. Tonight

I did archaeology for 4 years, then land surveying for 3 years (you know the people standing at tripods?). And I can tell you I got no special treatment. None of the men (or women, in archaeology) that I worked with thought that there was any reason I couldn't do the job. In surveying, we worked in ALL neighborhoods, but it was daytime. And since I was not crew cheif, 90% of the digging of holes, walking long distances in all sorts of brush and woods, etc., fell to me.

I do not considerable myself vulnerable or fragile. My husband and I take turns removing the dead squirrels from our yard, for example (quite a few lately, since the dog learned how to catch and kill them). BUT it would be stupid for a 128 lb female (or male) person, to ride alone at night in a bad area. Sorry, but I'd rather be mugged than *****.

Quote:

Originally Posted by vrkelley

heh heh...that's cuz YOU ARE a teen :D

I am?? :eek: Wonderful discoveries we make about ourselves sometimes...

Am I a male teen too by any chance?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Buglady

I ride to work SO THAT I don't have to do as much of the cooking :D I work full time, volunteer, and study, and for some reason I also end up doing most of the cooking/cleaning at home, despite my boyfriend and a housemate both being home a great deal more than I am. Therefore, I ride to remove myself from that expectation.

Nobody's died of the plague yet...

Expectations are largely what you set, though we all make weird compromises. My wife is so paranoid about being a "traditional" woman that I've always done all vacuuming, toilets, garbage, dishes, a huge chunk of the cooking, and all maintenance despite the fact that we've always lived within walking distance of her work (and moved when she switched jobs) while I've always worked in another town.

My attitude whoever does the work determines the standards as well as how it is done. Anyone who doesn't like that can feel free to help out.

Why anyone would consider housework and cooking to be womens' work is a bit beyond me. Few people know how to cook or fix things, and there is practically no relationship between competency in domestic economy or industrial arts and gender except for in TV commercials.

Quote:

Originally Posted by banerjek

My attitude whoever does the work determines the standards as well as how it is done. Anyone who doesn't like that can feel free to help out.

Why anyone would consider housework and cooking to be womens' work is a bit beyond me. Few people know how to cook or fix things, and there is practically no relationship between competency in domestic economy or industrial arts and gender except for in TV commercials.

I freely admit it's often my own expectations of myself that I'm escaping by riding. Things DO eventually get done and it evens out, just not if I get there first (for example, The Boy made chili last night and the housemate said she'd do the kitchen cleanup today). It's just a matter of different threshold levels for perceiving that things need to be done. I have a lower dish threshold and a much higher vacuuming threshold than The Boy.

I'm a better handyman than he is, too :D - he's weirdly proud of that and I've overheard him boasting to his friends about the latest thing I've fixed. I'm just a very hands-on person and I like taking stuff apart.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Buglady

Having a diverse skill set is never a bad thing. Being able to whip up a decent meal out of materials on hand is just a useful skill, and so is knowing how things work. Everyone likes being around people who know how to do things. Helpless able bodied people, on the other hand, sometimes have it tough.

I'm a female bike commuter (10 miles each way), and not only have I not seen another female bike commuter, I've never seen another commuter, period. ...Well, except for this guy who somehow rigged up a lawnmower engine to his bike.. I digress.

I think it's sad that I don't see other commuters, men or women, but I live in an area where the only cyclists that seem to be around belong to the elite racing clubs, or the poor mexican landscapers who ride their walmart bikes on the wrong side of the road.

For those who are looking at male/female ratios, I did a quick calculation on my 17-km commute, a long commute mostly against traffic. The morning trip was between 7:40 and 8:30 a.m., and the evening trip was between 4:45 and 5:50 p.m.

........................ Morning ......... Evening
.......................Males Females .. Males Females
=====================================================
TOTAL (17 km) ............ 70 .. 50 ..... 137 .. 105

Urban section (6 km) ..... 25 .. 25 ...... 53 .. 62
(St-Laurent/St-Urbain
and Ontario)

J. Cartier bridge (3,2 km) 41 .. 25 ...... 82 .. 43

Suburbia (8,5 km) ......... 4 ... 1 ....... 2 ... 4
(Longueuil-Brossard)

It's rather interesting to note that there seem to be more males on the longer commute (on the bridge) and that those who come from the South Shore all seem to come from the Old Longueuil and its vicinity. As soon as one reaches pure suburbia, the heard thins like magic.

The weather was ideal today. Numbers get lower when the weather isn't as good, but in 10 months, I have always seen at least 15 or 20 cyclists.

As a footnote, I really saw a chick this morning!
The guy (I think he was) was wearing a clown suit that looked a bit like a chicken.

The day i started(march) communting till now, i think i have seen only 4 people communting. all males.

My work place has a full sports facility. My environment has bike lanes everywhere. About 75% of people here live within 10km from work.

The men's changing room is usually fairly busy. The women's is virtually empty.

Sure, at lunchtime it all hots up so they can do their aerobicizin' bullsheot. Then they drive home again at night. But they go outside for coffee because they want to enjoy the nice weather.

wtf people :mad:

I saw 15 commuters, about 4 of them female, yesterday. It was a chilly morning - we actually got snow on Wednesday night! - so it was a little hard to tell the genders on a couple of very bundled people!

My youngest brother was a legendary courier in Calgary a few years back. Right through the winter too and full tilt all the time. And he would take the packages in the car zones (i.e. across the city) and still do them in time. He was absolutely insane. The weather he had to contend with... aah, I miss it.