Beautiful Bicycle Girls?
By Jenn (TinyChoices.com) | June 15, 2010
Some studies report that the measure of a healthy biking culture is the number of women in that culture who bike– the theory being if women have accepted biking as an acceptable mode of transportation, and can look fashionable while doing it, their numbers increase and those of men along with them.
This theory was given a trial run by the Beauty and the Bike campaign, which gave sweet Dutch bikes to a group of teenage English girls. These girls had grown up biking, but stopped when it was deemed uncool and socially unacceptable. But, you can guess what happened when they realized that with their new bikes they suddenly had the freedom to transport themselves anywhere they wanted, for free, without waiting around for their parents to give them a lift. Add in the cuteness factor of Dutch bikes and you have a gaggle of girls who are suddenly outspoken cycling proponents, while simultaneously improving their physical and mental health.
Seems like exactly what we need to do for all kids– give them bikes, provide a safe cycling infrastructure, and watch their happiness and self-confidence soar while the obesity epidemic plummets. Heck, roll that out across the adult population too and we’d have a very different society!
The New York Observer ran a story on this subject back in 2007, “The Beautiful Bicycle Girls of New York,” which still seems like a dead-on description of a certain genre of NYC bikers: attractive women wearing attractive clothing on attractive bikes. It stands to reason that these ladies will inspire younger ladies to ride, while also inspiring men to hop on bikes to pursue their own dreams. I can only hope, though, that the younger girls are smarter than their elder counterparts when it comes to helmet use.
Now, there’s nothing wrong with wearing bike-specific clothing when it’s needed– certainly, it would be folly to ride 50 miles in a halter dress and high heels. But for around-town rides, and certainly when bikes are used as everyday transportation– ferrying one to the store, a social engagement, and once around the park before heading home– I find nothing more lovely than wearing a breezy skirt and sandals while pedaling my own self around.
Have you noticed an uptick in female cyclists in your locale? If you don’t ride, why not? If you do ride, what’s your summertime cycling outfit of choice?
[Image by Foxandfeathers via Creative Commons]
Topics: Transportation | 13 Comments »
I love to bike at college but my co-op is in a small town in upstate New York, and I do not feel safe biking to work. I do walk, but only because I can jump out of the way if drivers get to close! I think many areas in this country have been designed only for automobiles, and of course, those areas are trying to change, but it won’t do a lick of good if drivers ignore cyclists, hassle them, and drive dangerously.
Granted, cyclists also need to be educated. Bicycles are vehicles, and need to follow the same rules as automobiles: stopping at stop lights, for example. When I stop at a stop sign I’ve seen drivers look at me as if to say “What do you think you are? A car?”
You’re right on all accounts, Alyoops! Especially regarding educating cyclists– my personal rules are twofold: 1. I am invisible (meaning, ride like no one sees me, because they don’t, and they will turn into me/pull out in front of me/etc), and 2. don’t scare pedestrians. I saw a guy ride through two intersections yesterday, scattering pedestrians out of his way at each. Not a good way to build warm fuzzy feelings!
I’ve just gotten into biking for primary transport this year. I must say I probably don’t cut such an elegant figure as any of the examples here: for one, I rarely wear skirts or dresses anyways. I usually wear pants, and to stop them from snagging in my unprotected chain I just fold and roll them up. I’m also riding a hand-me-down mountain bike, without fenders, so the skirt guard is not yet an option. I am so looking forward to getting a road bike when the current one isn’t feasible anymore.
My partner actually wears skirts more than I do, but has lamented that he can’t wear them while biking – maybe I’ll pass this article along to him.
I also agree with the comments about proper biking etiquette – my town seems to be full of young people on silly little bmx bikes who think the sidewalk is their right and that cars should stop for them whenever they decide to cross a busy street. It makes bike advocacy difficult because every time we say “cars just aren’t respecting cyclists” the motorists get all huffy and point to the countless examples of irresponsible cycling, clearly painting all of us with one brush. As someone who obeys the rules of the road, with a helmet, and overall attempts to merge expediency with safety, I find it very aggravating.
That said I’m not ready to give up cycling anytime soon, despite having small run-ins at least every few days.
Thanks for the great links.
Ah, you always lure me back with bike talk, Jenn! Of course I’m a huge proponent of cycling everywhere, even when inconvenient…for my full-day today, I’m carrying bike clothes, work clothes, running shoes, running clothes and rain gear…I’ve got two full panniers, but I’m ready for whatever the day throws at me, and will be biking to my running group on the way home from work.
I’m no pretty girl/hipster cyclist, though – I dress to ride, and I hope that young girls see me and think that they can be a badass biker chick when they grow up, too. ;) I’m not really noticing and uptick in women cyclists in Chicago – it’s probably 70% male here for the hardcore commuting set, with a higher representation for women leisure riders on the weekends. Overall, though, the bike racks in the city are getting ever more crowded and with them converting from parking meters to pay boxes, I’ve run into times where I need to walk a block or two to find a spot to lock-up – cycling is spreading!
I go for sun protection rather than style for summer riding. I toss on long-sleeve shirt (unbuttoned) over whatever shirt I happen to be wearing. Depending on how hot it is and how long I’ll be out in the sun, I’ll either wear my thin, sun-protective pants, or regular athletic shorts.
At the moment, I have clipless pedals, so I almost always wear biking shoes, and bring sandals to change into when I get to my destination. Sometimes I do bike in a skirt, which looks awesome with the bike shoes :)
I’ve considered switching to pedals with toe clips so I can more easily wear “regular” shoes. Either way, I’m pretty nervous about biking in sandals — maybe the danger (real or not) was drilled in too well when I was little.
I love biking at night, especially in the summer, when it’s a bit cooler and I don’t have to worry about the sun — so much fun!
My least favorite part about biking in the summer is when I reach my destination and the nice breeze I created goes away. :)
I’m one of the few ladies I know who will still bike to work this time of year (it’s been full-on summer for nearly a month in Louisiana). This isn’t to say I’m the only woman out there, but I start to hear a lot of excuses from my friends during the balmy months about it being too hot and not wanting to get sweaty. I try to accept the fact that living in New Orleans means that it will be hot and sticky from May til October. To that end, my biking outfit of choice is generally a tank-top and skirt or a sun-dress. I bring my work clothes with me and change when I get to the office.
[...] Jenn ?????: Have you noticed an uptick in female cyclists in your locale? If you don’t ride, why not? If you do ride, what’s your summertime cycling outfit of choice? [Image by Foxandfeathers via Creative Commons]. Share/Save/Bookmark … Overall, though, the bike racks in the city are getting ever more crowded and with them converting from parking meters to pay boxes, I’ve run into times where I need to walk a block or two to find a spot to lock-up – cycling is spreading! … [...]
[...] Beautiful Bicycle Girls? | Tiny Choices [...]
[...] ladies, it’s time to dust off your bicycle. Turns out that bicycling movements often begin with women. Why? Men see how amazing we look riding around town, saving gasoline and getting exercise and [...]
Ahh, I love biking in theory… I have this gorgeous bike (Electra Townie), it’s fun to roll around the neighborhood, and it’s good exercise… but the idea (and very occasionally, the practice) of riding in any kind of traffic terrifies me. When I ride, it’s almost always just around the little-used streets near my house. I’d love to be able to actually go places on my bike, but there are so few bike lanes–and almost none of them are on busy roads–that there just isn’t really space to ride, at least for me. If anyone has any advice for dealing with this, I’d love to hear it…
Hey Clare! While you’re getting used to riding on streets which may not be so bike friendly, maybe you could drive to a more central location, and bike around from there? Like, if you’d usually drive around to do your errands, instead you could drive to a middle point and hop on your bike to get things done. That may be a good way to become more comfortable on your cutiepie Townie!
I just found your blog via a comment thread on Oh Joy!
I work alongside the lovely people of the Cycle Chic movement to promote social cycling. One of the ways we do this is through fun and organized casual group rides called ‘Cycle Chic Sundays’. We basically get some friends together – get dressed up [sometimes in fancy clothes / sometimes in casual clothes] and ride around town.
Since we started the organized rides back in March – I have noticed an increased interest in bicycles amongst my friends and in my community. there are other ladies in other cities hosting their own rides. It’s a great way to take the scary factor away by having a support group to ride with. It also strengthens the community of local bike enthusiasts which means more chances of finding a bike buddy to commute with or run errands with.
If you want to learn more about the rides and get involved visit us at http://www.cyclechicsundays.com
xo,
eva.lu
I belong to the group that produced the film and book (bilingual in English and German) “Beauty and the Bike”. And I find all these comments here extremely interesting: Women would like to cycle but find it scary. Why? Because of motorised traffic.
That is exactly the issue we are hitting with our project. We found out that the crap infrastructure and thus the arrogant behaviour of car drivers (and bus drivers) puts women off cycling, even if they have a beautiful, comfy and practical bike like a red Dutch bike with a big basket for their bags, with a skirt guard and chain gliders to protect you from chain oil.
We looked at it from a cultural point of view and a sociological angle. And it was very revealing that the material circumstances like the infrastructure are as important as cultural barriers like peer group pressure when it comes to cycling.
On our website you will find a short version of the film, at youtube we put up a few more short films about the issue, e.g. one about “What happened next”?, which deals with what our British girls are doing now..You can see that here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/BeautyandtheBike
We are working now on an NTSC version of our DVD for the USA public.
We would love to hear more of you and your experience…..
http://www.bikebeauty.org