Doohickie

^ Yes. Her.

She's made several instructional videos on CommuteOrlando and is active in the blogosphere when people as VC questions.

I-Like-To-Bike

I didn't see anything about vehicular cycling (I didn't look too hard) but it is a very intelligent and interesting site about bicycling. The blogger has an appreciation for the aesthetics of bicycling for pleasure and practicality. Good pictures too.

genec

I did note with interest that there seemed to be a preference for paths in the photos... not too many are "on road."

Bekologist

a few caveats (applicable to both men and women):

bike infrastructure and vehicular cycling are not mutually incompatible.

vehicular cyclists can support and endorse bikelanes and bike master plans that facilitate lawful road bicycling behaviors.

vehicular cyclists aren't against bike infrastructure, only idiots rally against bike infrastructure.

Gene in San Diego is a good example of a vehicular cyclist that also endorses facilities. i believe he considers himself a vehicular cyclist but also recognizes the unpalatability of high speed, high volume roads and bike traffic without modifications to facilitate bike travel.

Doohickie

Maybe it just isn't as safe to be whipping out the camera while in traffic.

dogbitteneear

I've thought about this and came up with the following:

1. Women are looking for security when doing anything. Say a women bikes to the grocery store. How many times has she been told to watch for strangers? Would that not figure in to this question?

2. Women who ride may not have a buddy to ride with.

3. The crux of the biking problem may be vanity ie "Does this bicycle make me look fat?"

Dogbitteneear

akohekohe

The SA article: "Women were less likely than men to try on-street bike lanes and more likely to go out of their way to use “bike boulevards,” quiet residential streets with special traffic-calming features for bicycles." I think you raise a good issue about harassment and I think this confounds the issue of women and traffic. Unfortunately, women out riding on bicycles often have to endure being "hit on" by other road users which is not something men usually have to put up with, so it is not strange that they might prefer quieter residential streets with less "potential for social friction" as you put it.

tallard

Randya, to answer your query, to which oh so few females here even answered ???
I am an almost vehicular cyclist, I've been a courrier in Montreal, I've cycled, toured and commuted on 4 continents plus the Caribbean (which I consider separate), I prefer faster traffic roadways over slower traffic, am against most cycling infrastructure (I find they promote incompetence), and have been riding helmetless for 40 years.

But then again, I've always been a tomboy, will never have kids, weigh 225 lbs, on a 5'7 frame, so boy do I look fat on my cycle compared to all the skinnies out there! Maybe I just scare drivers! I can stare a driver down and sometimes even interpose myself in front of traffic on purpose. So maybe I don't count cuz I'm not an average female cyclist?

But I NEVER cycle with female friends, cuz all my female friends are riding slower and in places where I have no interest in riding. And the reason so few of my girlfriends cycle at all??
2 points:
-Cuz they're unfit
-and they're chicken chit

In almost all sporting activities, I prefer male companions. Girls are raised differently, I think women could have more road smarts and confidence, IF they were raised to not fear. But that's not reality.

As for VC, my style is similar but personalised: I only take a lane on narrow streets, traffic jams, straight-way through intersections, downhill, or anytime I'm going near traffic speed, and left turns, I don't give way to backed up traffic unless there is a nice 100% safe shoulder to aside to (I hate weaving cyclists), and I'm accustomed to motorists brushing up to me so close that my open jacket swats their vehicle.

Bekologist

my girlfriends are chicken chit!

hey, that's the spirit of 'vehicular' cycling! everyone else is too scared to ride, must be a personal problem.

high speeds, high volumes of distracted drivers on cellphones, agressive driving, every hundreth driver yelling something out the window at the slow bicyclists,


it could also be a lack of respect from motorists or agressive behavior towards bicyclists that turn them off from a lot of road riding.

would you say 'you're chicken chit'! to your grandmother?

gcottay

+1

In my experience, vehicular riders in general and commuters and other utility riders in particular can be especially effective advocates for useful cycling infrastructure in that they (ok, we) are also willing to be critical of problematic "improvements."

1nterceptor

To answer your question, yes. She can even stop traffic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMJUt6E9XN8

https://planetgreen.discovery.com/tv/...de-marlow.html

Veloria

I enjoy vehicular cycling and prefer it to trails and paths. I am a 31 year old female with less than a year of proper cycling experience, who is not very athletic or tough. I ride in a skirt, because that's what I tend to wear off the bike. And I don't care about the politics of any of it - I just do what feels best. I simply find roads more convenient, more fun, and more liberating than paths when it comes to transportation. I do go on trails when I feel like being in nature, but I do not use them for transport.

Here is one post that mentions VC:
https://lovelybike.blogspot.com/2010/...-road-new.html

and here is one complaining about mandated bike trails, with a female friend in Vienna:
https://lovelybike.blogspot.com/2009/...t-on-town.html


I don't feel it's safe to pose for photos in the middle of the road, in the midst of moving traffic : )

The theme of my website is not advocacy of any sort, but beautiful bicycles and interesting scenery (usually nature or architecture) to which I get via cycling. I happen to like VC, but I don't "advocate it" or feel the need to photograph myself performing it, as I see nothing of interest in the images this would produce.

For example, we cycled to this destination through the city, on the road:
https://lovelybike.blogspot.com/2009/...le-island.html
but didn't take pictures until we got there - because the destination was of interest, not the route.

Hope that makes sense.