A cycle path of one's own

The promotion of bicycling has often focused on the commuter or the recreational rider or the safety of the young and occasional riders. Through all this advocacy, the disparity in inclination to ride based on gender is rarely noticed. On the other hand, Alan Hoffman, a transit consultant, identifies successful transit systems by the frequency of women riders. He considers women the indicator species on whether transit operators and designers have constructed and maintain a system that is safe and convenient.

A Fall 2009 Scientific American article sums up some of the challenges bike advocates face when they addresses issues of increasing bike ridership in the U.S. Some researchers believe a key element, as it is with transit systems, is making it comfortable, safe and convenient for women. An illuminating viewpoint in that article comes from John Pucher at Rutgers who states that when cities construct bike trails "...they are almost always along rivers and parks rather than along routes leading “to the supermarket, the school, the day care center...” (where presumably women would be more apt to use them.)

The appearance of cycle paths, such as in New York City, Portland, OR and Cambridge, MA, that provide physically separated bicycle ways on city streets, is a welcome shift that may make biking more attractive to women riders.