Why fewer women than men cycle in the US

[OakLeaf]

I didn't mean to suggest that infrastructure isn't part of the problem. But there's infrastructure and there's infrastructure. In the town nearest me, there are very few destinations that I'd be willing to access by bike, and I'm an able-bodied, experienced and committed vehicular cyclist, adult. Lanes are just too narrow and busy and high-speed, and there are no alternate routes to most places. Even getting to town, before I even think about what specific store or office I might be going to, adds 400 feet elevation gain and a couple of hills that are nasty when it's just me on the bike, over the route I'd take in a car, because there's two miles of the usual route I just won't ride on. Narrow, no shoulder (not even a grass or gravel shoulder for most of it), heavily trafficked, 45-mph limit meaning people are often going 55, two lanes further narrowed by potholes in certain places, and sightlines of less than 1/4 mile. I just disagree with some about the nature of the infrastructure that would help. Did I mention I'm a committed vehicular cyclist?

As far as "overprotected" children ... I think it's more a matter of how we prioritize risk, and that's going to be different in every culture, and not necessarily rational-seeming to those who don't share that upbringing. Just like the conversation we were having about germs a while back. Americans freak out about reusable grocery bags, but don't care that they're eating the meat that got the conveyor belts so disgusting to begin with. I've seen an Italian woman pick her baby's pacifier up off the ground, rinse it in the same public fountain where construction workers were filling their pails, and pop it back into the infant's mouth; and yet in Italy, it's considered gross to touch fruits or vegetables on display in a market. Different cultures, different habits.

And we also have to remember that there isn't "one United States" as far as transportation infrastructure is concerned. Yep, I've seen parents stacked up outside their kids' schools in a walkable neighborhood, engines running. I know that there are cities that have public transport and sidewalks and bike lanes. But I also know that when we had dogs, we agreed that it wasn't safe to walk our dogs on a short leash on our road. I run it, and I feel fine running it, but I know how to be hyper-alert for the sound of an approaching vehicle, when to switch to the "wrong" side of the road so I won't be directly in the path of a vehicle on the other side of a blind hill or corner, when to look for an emergency escape, and when to just dive for the ditch and risk the sprained ankle and poison ivy. And I'm willing to take the risk for myself that one day all those measures won't be enough. But a child too young to drive a car is also too young to have the situational awareness needed to walk or bike on that road, or most of the roads in my area, AFAIC, and while I'm disgusted with parents who won't put their kids on the bus - or who sit in their cars at the end of their lanes, engines running, so their kids won't have to walk the 1/4 to 1/2 mile back to their houses after the bus drops them off - I don't think it would be appropriate to let them walk or bike to school here, either.