Quote Originally Posted by cassie View Post
On a slightly different note - as people who cycle regularly and enjoy the sport; what do you like best about it? What aspects of cycling would you promote in order to encourage young females to participate more? In my earlier research, I found that health and body is a very prominent issue with females aged 20-25, and so was hoping to use that as a possible direction perhaps....
This research approach makes more sense: ask people who bike why they do, and ask those who don't why they don't.
I started biking 5 years ago so I can answer why I didn't bike before, and why I do bike now.

I bike for transportation. I started biking because we had only one car and couldn't afford a 2nd. So I started biking because it was cheap! I loved it, and now we will never have two cars. I loved losing weight, I love saving money, I love not driving a killing machine around. I feel safer on a bike than in a car.

Why didn't I bike until I was 31? It didn't occur to me. I didn't realize that people could bicycle for transportation, unless they were poor or had DUIs. (In fact, someone assumed I was "green" because she knew I wasn't too poor or drunk to own a car, and that was the only reason she could think of that I would bicycle!) I recommend education & role models to encourage women to bicycle.