Pitting the Pinterest photographic evidence (pretty girls on bikes floating through the world’s major cities) with the actually statistics (3 men cycling to every one woman) is depressing. I’ve been thinking about it for two years, as I wrote the book, and blog posts, and articles. Why don’t more women ride?

It started to seem that a low-level persistent fear of riding in traffic was paralyzing people, especially women, who want to bike.

In organizing the recent Cyclofem.me ride, Portland chapter, Cindy Llewelyn, a triathlete and spokesperson for Rapha, mentioned the statistic that 9 out of 10 women over 30 are ‘afraid’ to exercise outside.

That seemed completely unbelievable.

Until I read the surveys. Granted, it’s a British study, of just under 1,500 women, from last month (April 2012). Still, women self reported in the Mind survey that they were intimidated to get outside to exercise. if those results can be extrapolated to Americans, we can likely say that a majority of adult women over 30 are not only worried about traffic, they have body issues and self-esteem fears that might be keeping them from the bike.

Here’s what Mind found:

• 2 out of 3 feel conscious about their body shape when they exercise in public
• Many doubt their own ability compared to others; 65% think it’s unlikely they’ll be able to keep up in an exercise group and almost a half feel they will look silly in front of others as a result of being uncoordinated
• 60% are nervous about how their body reacts to exercise – their wobbly bits, sweating, passing wind or going red
• 2/3 feel that if they joined an exercise group, other women would be unwelcoming and cliquey, with only 6% feeling they would be very likely to make new friends

In response to these feelings, many women have taken extreme steps to reduce the risk of embarrassment:

• Over 50% said they exercised very early in the morning or late at night solely to avoid being seen by others
• Almost 2/3 of women choose to exercise in a location where they’re unlikely to bump into anyone they know
• Over 50% don’t leave the home when exercising, so as not to be seen in public – even though exercising outside is more effective for lifting mood then inside
• 67% wear baggy clothing when exercising in order to hide their figure

While even now, thinking of all the women I know who do cycle makes me doubt the numbers could be this high, thinking of all the women I know who don’t makes them plausible. And there’s only one antidote, really. Find your tribe, that group that makes you feel good about biking, whatever type of biking it is.

Where to start looking? Well, here’s our Meetup Women on Wheels group. Likely there’s a Meetup in your area similar to ours, waiting to take you on a ride!

p.s. This lovely, moody photo is of Eva Lewington, of Cycle Chic Sundays. Eva is definitely not afraid to ride, and yet, she understands that the cycling movement in general needs much more acceptance of different styles or riders. Thanks, Eva!

Girls on bikes needs to grow up – and here’s the book to help it do so.

Women on Wheels: A Handbook and How-To for City Cyclists, is the result of my musings on the question: “Why do men outnumber women in the bike lanes by an average of 3 to 1?” and of course, “Why don’t more women ride?”

It takes me 200 pages to try to dispel some of the myths and answer the questions.

Order one now. Autographed by the author…i.e. me!

When you meet 100 or more people at a trade show – in this case the New Amsterdam Bike Show, you may think you start to see a pattern in who stops by your booth to chat, or just look, or take your book in hand and buy it.

But then someone walks up and changes your mind.

Today my someone was Justine.

Justine sidled up sideways, dress in an oversized coat, black ballet flats and a sashed blouse. Her blond hair was freshly washed and neatly combed, though not exactly ‘coiffed’. Justine wanted to talk about cycling, city cycling, and at first it was a little hard to believe that she actually was a cyclist.

It wasn’t altogether obvious – she didn’t show any of outward signs of being either a new or an experienced cyclist – no backpack with blinky lights affixed, no clipless shoes, no helmet dangling from hand and, from her build and demeanor, really no indicator at all that Justine had ever been on a bike.

But then she started talking, and it became clear that Justine is a very dedicated cyclist.

Yet the longer she talked, the more mysterious the story became, for Justine described her time as a racing cyclist, and as a bike messenger. You couldn’t, or wouldn’t, upon meeting Justine, think bike messenger. At all.

Finally, in a sweet, confiding tone, Justine explained that when she previously was a man, she had been a messenger and a racer, had worked in a bike store and actually been none too tolerant of the women cyclists coming in through the door.

Then Justine completed her journey and her surgery to become a woman – a woman who enjoyed riding her bike – and instantly she understood the differences between being a ‘male cyclist’ and a ‘female cyclist’. Suddenly, Justine said, she had empathy for the women who don’t have such a pleasant experience when they walk through the bike shop doors.

And yet, what unites Justine’s experience as male biker with Justine’s experience as female biker is clearly joy of biking. Yes, it’s a cliché, this idea of biking joy. But it’s really why we do it. At the end of a long day, Justine long gone, booths clearing out, show over, the one thing I wanted to do was put my feet to pedals and bike home. To have the chilly New York air in my face, to lift my weary shoes from the pavement to the pedals, to roll along thinking about nothing else than the ride, and arriving alive.

That’s why we ride.

(Read more about Justine’s journey at midlifecycling.blogspot.com)