We want healthy, liveable cities and to cut emissions to net zero. Getting more people to use bicycles instead of cars will go a long way towards achieving these goals.
No, this is absolutely true. In general, women tend to be more risk averse than men. So in an environment where you have to ride on the road with cars—i.e., anywhere in Australia—women are going to be much less likely to feel safe riding a bike.
Separate from that, there are also issues that matter more to women than to men, relating to things like “eyes on the street” and path lighting at night. Men are more likely than women to feel safe riding on a dark park through a park at night.
It doesn’t matter if it’s actually very safe to do, it’s the fact that many women have been and are attacked that way so women will always have that fear in the back of their mind. Trying to deny this is going against basic human psychology and behaviour.
You only need to look at the current “man or bear” discussion to see how wrong you are.
What fucking shithole do you live in where women don’t feel safe riding a bike?
No, this is absolutely true. In general, women tend to be more risk averse than men. So in an environment where you have to ride on the road with cars—i.e., anywhere in Australia—women are going to be much less likely to feel safe riding a bike.
Separate from that, there are also issues that matter more to women than to men, relating to things like “eyes on the street” and path lighting at night. Men are more likely than women to feel safe riding on a dark park through a park at night.
Women don’t generally like riding bikes home after dark through dimly lit streets and parks etc. Pretty universal thing.
Not really. In places that are not absolute shitholes, that is a normal and safe thing to do.
It doesn’t matter if it’s actually very safe to do, it’s the fact that many women have been and are attacked that way so women will always have that fear in the back of their mind. Trying to deny this is going against basic human psychology and behaviour.
You only need to look at the current “man or bear” discussion to see how wrong you are.