I voted female because most of the junk mail that I get is addressed to Ms. Jan.

Not too many of us here. A chick in full high-speed long-distance battle gear sends WTF factor off the charts.

I'm a tranny. Where is that option?

To be fully inclusive, you'd have to include, trans, intersex, and gender non-conforming.

According to Wikipedia:

So the number is small, but not vanishingly small. However, they're invisible because they're made to conform to one gender or the other.

For the record, I am a man, but neither straight nor white.

I see a number of females bike commuting on the roads approaching campus (maybe almost 50/50 appearing to be male/female). Oddly, I see way less females bike commuting when I am further away from campus. I have no idea why, but I guess the people that are attracted to higher education may have a different mindset then others.

I should note, I am talking about people on the roads accessing campus, not the students that live and bike on campus.

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But i do see a lot of women riding pretty hardcore on the greenways here. my route to work doesn't have bike commuters (except me) which explains why I don't see hardly anyone else.

In New Orleans there are tons of females cycling for utilitarian purposes. Can't swear it is 50-50 but i see many daily.

I'd say it's the same in Vancouver proper. On my suburban/highway/industrial commute it's a different story...

Bike commuting is too sweaty and dirty for most women. Doesn't bother most men.

Those numbers are likely highly under reported.

If it didn't bother "most" men, you'd see WAY more doing it.

Could be that women get way less latitude for showing up at work being anything short of perfectly put-together.

Yes, and the hair is a big thing. Men usually have very short hair that doesn't require any sort of styling. Few women look good in extremely short hair, so it's harder to come up with something that works without a shower and hair dryer.

I'm volunteering for a women's "learn to commute by bike" class soon. In the first meeting we'll discuss what the participants want to achieve and what they feel they need to learn to get into it. I don't imagine their perceived obstacles are much different from the ones that keep non-cycling men from trying it, but I suppose we'll find out. I know at least one has never learned to ride a bike at all, so we'll be starting at the most basic level with her.

You realize that your poll does not measure the real proportion of commuters of each gender. It only measures the gender proportions of forum members who commute. I personally see a few more females than males commuting in my community.

There are a handful of commuters where I work, all guys. As for the route I take, It's a popular bike route for the roadies to take but I'm the only one out commuting.

Nah, all you need is a talented stylist, killer cut and a ton of attitude. Femininity = long hair is just social conditioning.

FWIW there are lots of women commuters around here. In fact of the dozen or so people in my office that commute by bike at least once in a while, there's a slight majority that are women. Many of them have longer hair as well. We do have showers in the building.

I didn't say the hair had to be long, only that extremely short hair doesn't look good on very many women (including me - I got mistaken for a man all the time when I briefly had it). Like it or not, helmet hair is something that many women consider when deciding to commute or not.

I want to see the survey of how many out of the 13 so far female commuters are single, then to see how heart broken most of this forum is.

I don't think there is even 13 female who have voted. Look at the previous posts.

Actually according to the poll it's at 18 now.

My wife was a daily utilitarian cyclist for 3+ years when living in NOLA.
Commutes 2-4 days per week and also rec/utilitarian cyclist here in ATX for the past 6 years. Probably on a bike 3-6 days per week. Pretty good for her because we have 4 kids.
Did her best in houston, as well. Bit more difficult for her there due to traffic conditions and less prevalent bicycle culture, at the time.

Yep but some of them are males who have voted female for whatever reasons and I'm not talking about those who are not male nor female. There is also some males who like to be female from time to time. It's impossible to conclude anything.

I see more women cycling as the weather gets better and the mornings/evenings get lighter. Most women I personally know don't commute via bike because the thought of something new and so different is a bit intimidating to them. I offer to ride with as many as I can for their first few trips and most of them are still bike commuting now; maybe not all year but they get out and do it. A major factor is access to shower facilities and a place to store things like shampoo and makeup/hairstyling things. A good haircut does help! And then there's the factor of 1) Kids 2) what to do if you need to run major errands after work 3) another job/school 4) bad weather 5) hills! etc., etc.

Those that don't ride all year round but still do it get my support and help if/when they need it. Some cities/neighborhoods are more bike friendly than others so a flat/good weather city may have more all around riders than one requiring some self-assuredness to just even ride a half mile to the grocery store in the rain, uphill with full bags on the major arterial since there's no through side-streets.

I think most people know that this is not the place for finding a date.