Bidtogetmorewomen feeling safe using bikes
MORE women should be involved in transport planning to address safety concerns to improve walking and cycling rates.
Studies have shown women are less likely to cycle to work than men, with personal safety cited as a concern.
Transport charity Sustrans wants to see more women having a say in design of roads and transport policies to remove the barriers and improve the number of women cycling on the roads.
A study looked at the travel habits of 2000 women across Glasgow.
It found that women’s journeys around cities were typically shorter than men’s, and more likely to involve ‘trip-chaining’ (multi-stop journeys) which tended to balance child care, work and other responsibilities. Women’s trips also used a number of different modes of transport.
The report also found that there was a lack of evidence to show how women participated in creating transport policy and planning in the UK. Currently, transport has the lowest percentage representation of women in senior posts within the public sector in Scotland, with women representing only 6.25 per cent heads of transport bodies.
Rebecka Bergh,25, moved to Glasgow from Sweden four years ago and has mostly travelled round the city by bike.
She said: “Drivers don’t tend to think about what it is like for people on bikes going about the city and I’m not very good at being assertive when I’m on my bike on the road. I am not always confident that I know if I am allowed in certain spaces,” she said.
“So when I feel that cars are getting too close or that they are getting impatient because I am cycling slowly, I don’t have the confidence to mark my space and will often find myself cycling very close to the pavement instead of keeping my distance from it, which can be dangerous.”
Sustrans Scotland’s Evaluation Manager Suzanne Motherwell, who led the research, said: “Our research has shown that there are a number of womenspecific barriers such as lack of time, complex schedules and fears of personal safety, which stop them from travelling actively more often.
“If we are to get more people walking and cycling, it is essential that we address the inequalities that exist between men and women in transport – at every level – from users right through to planning and policy making.”