Why fewer women than men cycle in the US

[OakLeaf]

Nothing in that article that hasn't been discussed here before, and while I don't have children either, I do find it compelling. The talk about the Netherlands is extraneous to the central point, I think.

All I have to do is think about how often, even with motorized transport, I wind up taking the car just because I have too much stuff to haul from town, or not enough time to put on all my moto gear and then take it off again at my destination. And that's all by myself, on a vehicle that travels as fast as a car.

Now, I could manage my time better to deal with the latter point, but for someone with primary responsibility for child care plus one, two or three jobs, those fifteen minutes count. And I'm sure someone will chime in about cargo bikes as they have when this has come up here before, and three cheers for the dedicated TWO people who ride them, but when you're dealing with, say, a two year old and a five year old, four bags of groceries including leafy greens that can't get battered and meat that has to stay frozen, and stops at three different stores (which, excluding the children, is pretty typical of one of my runs into town) - and of course the weather isn't always perfect, which means bundling the kids up way more than you'd have to for a car trip, plus making sure all your stuff is watertight ... that takes a WHOLE lot more dedication than him hollering "Honey, I'm off to work" and hopping on his bike. And maybe it's even tougher when the kids get older, because a nine year old is too big to ride in a trailer but too young to have the traffic skills to ride along to most destinations, and if it's two kids on their own bikes trying to follow you in rush hour traffic ... I don't think so.

The inequality in child care and household responsibilities in the USA is well documented, the Guardian didn't just come up with that. Actually the last figures I saw were even more skewed, so maybe there's a sign of improvement and maybe they just weren't looking at all the same measures. So yeah, I agree.