What is stopping women cycling?

[arabella]

Ding!  If I only'd done things that didn't worry my mother I would have done very little indeed.  I don't think she worked out that the reason I never told her what I was up to was so she couldn't come over all fearful/ban it.

[Morrisette]

I cycle in Cambridge which is probably one of the places that is closest to 'Copenhagen' style riding. Sit-up-and-beg bikes with a massive basket seem to be all the rage for teenage girls, for example. Here women DO cycle, within the city, and various kid-carrying bikes are a common-ish sight. We have no hills, which I think helps. Many bike shops dotted about so a mechanical isn't a big problem - you can just push the bike to the nearest shop. The major problem here is theft - pretty much everyone has had a bike stolen (me included) and having a crappy bike is no defence.

The thing that stops me riding is ice. Cambridge council seem to have given up on gritting completely, and they never did the cycle paths anyway. This is not a female-specific issue of course. But it is an issue which means no one will ever say - I won't use a car again, I will ride all the time. Today, for example, I couldn't. And in a cold winter that could be a day-by-day decision for 4 months.

[nikki]

The thing that stops me riding is ice. Cambridge council seem to have given up on gritting completely, and they never did the cycle paths anyway. This is not a female-specific issue of course.

Actually....
https://usa.streetsblog.org/2018/01/24/why-sweden-clears-walkways-before-roads/

(Think this was via Kim on Twitter.)

[Kim]

I think for a while the NHS were gritting footpaths here because it was cheaper than treating the resultant injuries.  Obviously there isn't money for that sort of thing any more.

With studded tyres, cycling is safer than walking on untreated pavements.  But that sort of thing is the domain of cycling enthusiasts, because practical use of studded tyres in a UK winter requires either tyre-changing-fu or more than one bike.  It's not like, say, Finland, where you know you're going to need them until spring.

[Si S]

I think for a while the NHS were gritting footpaths here because it was cheaper than treating the resultant injuries.  Obviously there isn't money for that sort of thing any more.

Still happening around the MRI, roads, paths, steps, the whole lot  it's like a little salty safety haven

[ian]

Our council does the roads and then claims 'no money' for the footpaths. They do send me a magazine that extols the virtues of 'getting active' though how we should look out for the old folks during cold weather. Presumably having them sprawled on the pavement with a broken hip makes them easy to help.