I don't deny that I personally think it would be great if more women did cycle, but that wouldn't justify my saying that it was a problem that so few of us do chose to.
It is a problem that so few people of both sexes cycle. If more did then IMHO our society would be a nicer place to live: less obseity and drains on the health service, less polution, less congestion, safer streets, cleaner and more sociable streets, etc etc.
Within cycling certain groups are under-represented. We might suppose that white straight males are genetically better disposed to cycle. What's that you say? "Rubbish"?, yes, I quite agree, almost any able bodied, and many less-able can cycle perfecty well. So why does this one group make up so much of our low number of cyclists - we need more cyclists and so we need to empower everyone, not just WSMs, with both the ability to cycle and the appriciation of the benefits that it would offer if they did.
I'm guessing that "female" is often identified as the biggest group that has lower cycling numbers, thus tackling this group would increase numbers most dramatically.
Rider: I fully admit that there is no such thing as the typical female, male, etc and that one solution won't work for all (unless you are Harry Seldon) but we have to start with macro solutions and hope that fit is just about good enough to cover a large part of the target group.
Perhaps, mhara, you would rather the question was: "what can we do to give more women the oppotunity to understand and experience cycling?" as this does not have the overtones of forcing them into it?
, because, as Thirdcrank says, CTC don't reply.
