Building a cycling culture for women
In her second article tackling the gender gap in cycling, Caz Conneller looks at how communication plays a key role to ‘win hearts and minds’ and help women see cycling as a mode of transport that can truly work for them. And how intervention is needed at various points in a woman’s life to achieve and sustain lasting change.
o meet government targets to make all local trips walked or cycled by 2050, we need a long-term holistic approach – one that tackles infrastructure and access, but that also appeals to the emotions. How as an industry do we collaborate with others to create these messages that penetrate and lead to lasting change?
I was privy to speeches and discussions with some of the most influential people in Active Travel recently at the All Party Parliamentary Working Group for Cycling and Walking’s (WGCW) summer bike ride, and there were some interesting soundbites.
Former cycling Olympian Chris Boardman, who I cycled alongside (I was glad I was on an electric bike), told attendees: “We are in the business of selling independence”, and when it comes to tackling some of the big issues we face in today’s world, “the NHS, the cost-of-living crisis and the environment, here we are!”
Minister of State for Decarbonisation and Technology Jesse Norman spoke of ‘joy’ and ‘freedom’ and the London Cycling Campaign of ‘fun’. So many positive messages to convey to people to join this vibrant community of walkers, cyclists and wheelers!
But when it comes to women, there are a few other key messages that need to be carefully addressed and explored if we want to convert them to the joy and freedom that a bike or an eBike brings. We need to look at safety, and we need to look at how we change perceptions. Many women believe that cycling is just for leisure/sport /kids/men and will never meet their needs as a bona fide mode of transport. We need a cultural shift.
Bicycles have played a part in the emancipation of women. In the late 1800s, the bicycle allowed many women to travel independently for the very first time. But over the years, the image of mountain biking and road cycling and MAMILs (middle-aged men in lycra) took hold. It simply doesn’t occur to many women that the bicycle could be their vehicle as it was for generations past.
Things are different in the Netherlands, of course. In the post-ride talks at the WGCW, Shelley Bontje from the Dutch Cycling Embassy spoke of how Dutch bike culture develops holistically and sustains from generation to generation. It’s normal for parents to carry kids on their bikes when they are little. Those kids then cycle their own bike when they are old enough. Teenagers – and this is the big gap in the chain here in the UK – then cycle as their first key independent mode of transport, and they continue to cycle into adulthood. And the whole ‘cycle’ repeats itself when they have their own children.
It made me realise that intervention is needed at various stages of women’s lives. And if we want to encourage this cycle to evolve here, the message needs to be tailored to resonate with the needs and values of women of all ages.
It’s not just the humble bicycle we have at our disposal now. We have electric bikes, electric cargo bikes and electric trikes which all add value and provide practicality for women, who often trip-chain, carry children and might not use the regular commuter routes.
Melissa Brunlett, Urban Mobility Advocate and Advisor, has a great rule when it comes to communicating cycling and active travel. She says we must “Think outside our echo chamber” to speak to those who are not already being reached.
For example, how do we get our message to the single mum with four kids who always drops her children to school in the car as it’s the only way she can get them all to their different schools? She never cycled much growing up and she doesn’t have the head space or budget to think about other options.
How do we reach the 60-year-old woman who thinks bikes are all very well for a pootle on summer’s day, but when it comes to actually going anywhere – to do her errands – she’d much rather jump in the car because that’s what she knows and it’s much easier?
How do we reach the teenage girl who doesn’t think cycling is cool? None of her friends do it and despite a Bikeability course in Year 5, she is still scared of cycling on roads. The social pressure is just too much for her to consider starting?
I have come across great schemes, businesses and grassroots projects recently that are genuinely addressing these questions.
Karen Wood, also known as ‘Mrs Balance-bike’, pioneered the use of balance bikes in the UK. Her company makes balance bikes that convert into pedal bikes and can last a child from 18 months to eight years old. She provides the bikes to instructors to support balance-ability in schools and nurseries.
Wood tells me how non-cycling parents will often buy their child a heavy bike with a basket about age seven, far too late. It’s difficult to ride and so it gets abandoned in the shed. However, if that child has a chance to try a balance bike around age two, their chances of learning to cycle, and then carrying it on to secondary school age, are much higher.
And if we bring balanceability into schools and nurseries on a mass scale so it’s treated similarly to swimming or a ballet lesson, parents can hand over to an expert and their child has a much greater chance of mastering the skills at a young age.
Or how about workshops run by engaging young people that teenagers admire, who inspire them and give them the skills to ride a bike, eBike or scooter safely and, dare I say it, make it cool? A fantastic scheme already doing this for e-scooters is South-London-based Rollsafe, led by Jerome Sewell. Rollsafe visits local community centres to hold workshops that show kids how to use an e-scooter safely.
Another is Kent-based VeloBuild, led by Matthew Witt. They go into schools to teach children how to build their own bikes and how to ride them. Then the kids get to keep the bike!
Witt told me: “Girls seem to take to Velobuild very naturally. We’d found that one in four girls who have taken part in Velobuild, and who live within a cycleable distance, now use their bike to travel to their place of learning.”
Meanwhile, #AndSheCycles campaign, supported by Sustrans, is a great scheme in Scotland that encourages teenage girls to cycle in their everyday lives with a social media campaign and real-life meetups.
A big focus for our She’s Electric campaign is to help women with young children and show them how they can get children on their bikes safely and how electric bikes make cycling with children easier. We’ve also identified that women aged 50-plus are a key group that has a strong uptake in e-cycling, as they value how they can cycle easily and still stay fit and healthy. Our campaign aims to tell these stories, show these benefits to encourage and inspire other women in this age group to have a go and reap the rewards.
And if we look at the older generation, who may need to give up their cars at some point, and we communicate the bike, eBike or e-trike as a way for them to retain their independence and social life, could we make this a natural progression for retirees over time?
The key factor in communicating effectively is showing the value. Why should this matter to me? Why should I care? Why does it make my life better? And once that message has resonated, it’s about giving people the opportunity to try.
A fantastic campaign that had value coming out of its ears was Cycling UK’s Cycling Made E-asier. First up, it’s a great name that completely spells out the value. Riding an e-bikes is E-asier. Don’t worry about getting hot and sweaty. Don’t worry about it feeling too tough. Don’t worry about not being able to keep up. All these barriers are removed. And the value just keeps getting better: you get an eBike on loan for FREE.
Sarah Mitchell, chief executive at Cycling UK said: “We’re delighted that, since launching last year, Making Cycling E-asier has seen strong participation from beneficiaries of all backgrounds, including ethnic minority groups, people from deprived areas and women.
“Just recently we heard from Jo, a retired NHS senior manager in her 60s, who went on to purchase her own e-cycle following the support and guidance she received through Making Cycling E-asier. The extra boost gives Jo the confidence to pedal instead of drive for short everyday journeys, and she often does an extra loop as she finds riding such a joy.
“Funded by Department for Transport, the scheme offers communities based in Manchester, Sheffield, Leicester and Luton & Dunstable free skills and confidence sessions, and free one-month loans, and is delivered in selected workplaces, Evans Cycles stores and community hubs, such as Khizra Mosque in Manchester.”
These types of schemes are great opportunities for the industry and the public and third sectors to work together to deliver projects that drive change, expand the market and promote the right brands and services to the right people. But we need to link them up with the bigger picture when it comes to policy, while investing in effective communication on a national scale.
For example, the recent changes to the Highway Code were a missed opportunity for effective messaging. Apparently, £2.2 million was assigned to the communication of these changes, the main one being that vulnerable road users now have priority at junctions. All I saw were a few lacklustre infographics online. Government figures identified by Sean Meager’s article in Cycling Electric revealed 36% of people surveyed knew ‘hardly anything’ about the highway code changes. Surely a PR campaign rich with images and videos of girls and women cycling, walking and wheeling with confidence to nursery or school while cars gave way, emphasising communication and harmony between road users, would have been much more effective.
There was no demonstration that this change in policy would make the road a safer place for you because you would have priority over vehicles. And crucially, there was very little communication to drivers too. But it could have been a great opportunity to educate, inspire and change perceptions if we’d have brought it to life.
Ultimately, if we can achieve cultural shifts in smoking and wearing seatbelts, we can do the same for cycling. But first we need to listen to what women need and then cultivate messages and opportunities that meet their needs along their full cycling lifecycle.
Caz Conneller is spearheading a campaign called ‘She’s Electric’ to help more women embrace and enjoy eBikes and eCargo bikes. See full details over at Cyclechic.co.uk and message caz@cyclechic.co.uk to get involved or contact her on LinkedIn: Caz Conneller (nee Nicklin)
PIC CREDITS: Dutch Cycling Embassy
