May Is National Bike Month: Women Make the Difference

Ellen Barton is a regular bicycle commuter and the everybodyBIKE program manager. She is a certified league cycling instructor through the League of American Bicyclists and is a member of the Whatcom Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory Committee.

Research proves it: women are important. Very important, that is, if Bellingham is to achieve its bicycling transportation goals.

Bellingham’s ambitious goals to reduce car trips can only be met if more women start making one or two trips a week by bicycle instead of by car. That’s the raw conclusion from detailed interviews, data collection and analysis carried out in 2008 as part of the Whatcom Smart Trips program.

Bellingham’s Comprehensive Plan goal is to increase bicycle share of trips to 8 percent. Currently it’s 5 percent, the highest rate of bicycle use for transportation statewide, but still low compared to Portland or Eugene. Most Bellingham bike trips are made by men. Given the way that bicycles are marketed in the U.S., that’s not a surprise, but Bellingham won’t achieve its transportation goals unless women — and seniors — start pedaling a few more times a week.

There are lots of reasons why women don’t bike for transportation as much as men around here. Concerns about appearance, comfort, practicality and perceptions about safety are big parts of the equation. But these concerns are not insurmountable.

• Marketing: The bicycle industry has sold women the message that bicycling equals success … success in racing. There are great ads featuring women bike racers. But for the rest of us interested in making one or two bike errands each week, bicycle marketing hasn’t caught up. Ads sell gears, not lifestyle.

Bicycling magazine’s recent buyer’s guide is perhaps illustrative: barely 1 percent of the hundreds of models reviewed feature practical, comfort bikes. The message is: bicycles are for athletes. The astute shopper will find signs of change; one ad featured a sleek and stylish cruiser with practical features like a rack and fenders — and a male rider. And ads for the brands REI, Trek and Clif Bar promote bicycling for practical trips. Trek’s campaign says it all, “One World, Two Wheels.”

• Shopping: A shopping trip is a practical use for a bicycle … as long as you have a practical way of carrying your purchases home. Research shows that women (still) do most of the shopping in the U.S. Many shopping trips are quick little errands to pick up that jar of mayonnaise or that double tall half-caf.

These little shopping trips are ideal for a bicycle ride — unless your bike was the kind featured in Bicycling magazine. A bike without a rack or basket makes carrying a jar of mayonnaise a challenge. A backpack isn’t as comfortable as a bike basket.

Along with shopping, women are responsible for most childcare duties. Shopping sometimes requires taking the children along. The solution is a matter of judgment and better gear. Clearly, a shopping trip with three children of varying ages will work better with a car. But add a trailer to your bicycle, and a quick stop for milk on the way home from the daycare is easy. Sending your 13-year-old on her bike for a forgotten grocery item is an even better idea.

• Bike Design: The right kind of bike makes all the difference. If a person is interested in her image, she will use her bike more often if it complements rather than compromises that image. An athletic bike positions the rider in an aerodynamic position that may not be the ideal for looks or comfort. Until recently, no bike shops stocked practical, comfortable, stylish bikes complete with rack, fenders and basket. Now all the shops have a good selection and they’re selling well.

Interestingly, racks and fenders were standard components on all bikes up to the 1960s. Then the 1970s era racing bikes became fashionable and racks and fenders were eliminated to reduce weight. Mountain bikes later became popular for commuting but the racks and fenders remained absent. The reason this time was cutting cost, not weight.

The bike industry eventually noticed that this cost cutting resulted in, by the way, cutting out the market segments of the bike-buying public interested in utility. Cruisers, commuters and comfort bikes for the U.S. are the new thing. Breezer, Gary Fisher and Townie are some favorites brands available locally.

• Knowledge: What about traffic safety? If you look at a pie chart of bicycle crashes, half of the pie is pilot error — the bicyclist causes him/herself to fall off the bike. Two-thirds of the remaining half of the pie is nonautomobile-related crashes, such as riding through a pothole. Of the remaining sixth of crashes with automobiles, half are caused by bicyclists. Of the remaining twelfth of crashes, 90 percent occur at intersections and can be avoided by learning how to safely bicycle through intersections.

The truth is that we have control over our own safety. EverybodyBIKE is the bicycle education program of Whatcom Smart Trips. The everybodyBIKE Full Cycle class teaches the traffic safety skills that prevent crashes and make bicycling comfortable.

• Rising to the Challenge: According to U.N. research, women do 70 percent of the world’s work, so women are accustomed to saving the day. The challenge this time is saving the planet as habitat for humans. Can women surmount the barriers and change one or two of our trips each week to cycling?

Team-Up for everybodyBIKE may reveal the answer. Team-Up for everybodyBIKE is Whatcom Smart Trips’ month-long celebration of Natonal Bike Month in May. Let’s see if an upward trend in womens’ bicycling trips begins with a higher proportion of women Team-Up participants in May 2009. We can do it. §