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Cycling for Women

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Click here to download the latest Newsletter (July-August 2004)

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Cycling for Women is a year-long pilot project seeking to understand and begin to address the reasons why comparatively few women compared with men cycle as a means of transport in London. Based in the boroughs of Camden and Lambeth, it uses 'action research' methods as well as traditional research to understand gender issues relating to cycling and the urban environment. The project aims to encourage and enable more women to cycle, and to disseminate good practice to policy-makers and practitioners in order to raise the status of cycling and encourage more cycling as a healthy means of transport. The project is funded by the New Opportunities Fund via the SEED programme, and supported by a range of project partners.

Launch of the Cycling for Women Project in Camden

PROJECT PARTNERS AND ASSOCIATES
(each open in new browser window)

Transport 2000
www.transport2000.org.uk

Cycle Training Ltd
www.cycletraining.co.uk

London Cycling Campaign
www.lcc.org.uk

Social Action for Health
www.safh.org.uk/

Brixton Cycles Co-op
www.brixtoncycles.co.uk

Lambeth Cyclists
www.lambethcyclists.org.uk

Camden Cycling Campaign
www.greengas.u-net.com

Transport for London:Cycling Centre of Excellence www.tfl.gov.uk/streets/cycling/cycling-centreofexcellence.shtml

BikeFix
www.bikefix.co.uk/

London Borough of Lambeth
www.lambeth.gov.uk/

London Borough of Camden
www.camden.gov.uk

Sustrans (London)
www.sustrans.org.uk/

Evans Cycles
www.evanscycles.com

ACTION RESEARCH AND PRACTICAL ACTIVITIES

Two groups of women, six in Lambeth and six in Camden, will be kitted out with equipment and provided with training to enable them to cycle as a means of transport, and as a way of improving fitness and health. They will then complete travel diaries at regular intervals over several months to provide a detailed qualitative insight into the factors that affect the frequency and distance of journeys made by bike by new female cyclists in an urban environment.

At the end of the project the women will be offered the equipment loaned to them by WDS at a discounted price in order that their cycling can be sustained.

If you are a woman living or working in Camden or Lambeth and would like to apply to be an Action Research participant, please contact Alix Stredwick [email protected] tel 020 7490 5210

Maintenance classes and on-road training for women who can ride a bike (but not confidently in traffic and therefore not as a means of transport) will complement the action research groups in obtaining 'before' and 'after' results for attitudes towards cycling and the ability to cycle. WDS will be holding three cycle maintenance workshops in Camden and three in Lambeth, plus holding an additional six on-road group cycle training sessions in each borough for 60 women (groups will consist of between three and five women).

If you are a woman living or working in Camden or Lambeth and would like to apply for the maintenance classes or the training sessions to improve your cycling (you must bring your own bike to the sessions), please contact Alix Stredwick: [email protected] tel 020 7490 5210

There is some evidence from women-only training sessions carried out in Greenwich that women feel more comfortable and confident about learning to ride a bike in women-only sessions than mixed sessions. As a result, fifteen women in each borough will make up a Cycle Network which will enable women to get together and support each other with group rides and activities to boost cycling confidence. The aim is to ensure that the cycling is sustainable and provides a base for growth of cycling as these women encourage more women to cycle.

The participants of all these activities will be recruited from a range of sources, including clients and staff of local community groups, and contacts via cycling organisations such as the London Cycling Campaign, Sustrans and the CTC (Cyclists' Touring Club - the UK's national cyclists' organisation). We hope that their members know women who would like to cycle but would benefit from training and support. We also anticipate achieving coverage in local papers and other publications, resulting in a range of different women coming forward to be involved.

WDS wishes to involve women of many different backgrounds in order for the project to be inclusive and accurately reflect the experiences of all women. Women of all ages between 18 and 108, of a variety of ethnic backgrounds, various fitness levels and cycling abilities and disabled women will all be involved in the project and contribute to its findings and outcomes.


Women cycling in Lambeth



FOCUS GROUPS AND SURVEY WORK

50 women in each borough (totalling 100) will be surveyed on their opinions of cycling and 6 focus groups will be held to gain a deeper insight to attitudes towards and barriers against cycling for women. WDS will be investigating options that women come up with that would enable more women to cycle as a means of transport.

All expenses of participants will be paid by WDS and women will be able to meet other women and share experiences and perceptions of cycling and cyclists.

If you live or work in Camden or Lambeth and would like to take part in a focus group or survey please contact Alix Stredwick: [email protected] tel 020 7490 5210




POLICY

Cycling for Women aims to feed into policies on transport, health and gender in order to make cycling a more attractive option for women and indeed the population as a whole. WDS hopes to inform and influence the formulation and implementation of policy at the local, regional and national levels so that cycling gains status as a serious transport option. WDS hopes that we can contribute to achieving an increase in cycling as a means of transport where previously car journeys were made or women were forced to rely upon poor public transport.

Cycling is good for physical health and mental well-being and can form an easy and convenient part of a healthy lifestyle. We hope that health policies can take cycling more seriously and tie-in with transport policies to enable all people to feel safer and more confident about cycling as a means of transport.

Ultimately, Good Practice Guidelines will be published and disseminated at the end of the project. WDS will be working with local bike shops in Camden and Lambeth, aiming to sign-up five shops to the guidance. We also aim to enable three employers to improve their cycling policy (to enable staff and customers if relevant to cycle to their premises more easily) and to inform both boroughs on how their Local Transport Plans can address the specific needs of women cyclists and potential cyclists.




DID YOU KNOW THAT.....?

In places such as the Netherlands, Germany, York and Cambridge where cycling enjoys a higher proportion of utility journeys than the UK average people who cycle more accurately reflect the population as a whole: more women and older people cycle.

One in ten children and one in five adults in Britain are obese, which makes the UK the fattest nation in the EU.

Research by the former Department of Environment, Transport and the regions (DETR) between 1986 and 1996 showed that cycling accounted for only 1% of passenger transport

DETR figures for 1995/97 show that on average, men make about two and a half times as many bicycle trips as women, and cycle about four times as far.

The Public Transport Gender Audit carried out by the University of East London on behalf of the DETR found that women account for only 4% of journeys made by bike

 

 

FACTSHEETS

WDS is producing information sheets to help inform participants in the project, and the public, on cycling issues

Factsheet 1 Helmets

 

NEWSLETTERS

Newsletter One May-June 2004 (File size: 456kb)

Newsletter Two: July-August 2004 (File Size: 660KB)