[Originally published in East London Advertiser April 4th 2024]
CEO of JoyRiders Britain CIC, Mariam Draaijer, asks why so few women who want to cycle in London actually do compared to other European cities.
It’s Sunday morning, March 3, and finally, after months of preparations, the Women’s Freedom Ride 2024 is here.
I’m this year’s Ride leader, a huge responsibility leading around 800 women and their allies on a 5-mile route going through Oxford Street, Regents Streets, down the Mall up to Whitehall, Trafalgar Square and back to Lincoln’s Inn Field.
I’m leaving early to ensure I can ride the route one more time before the main ride. On my return, the first riders and the London Cycling Campaign (LCC) team of support marshals start arriving. We managed to get all the main roles filled by women this year!
But you might be wondering why we need a women’s freedom ride.
In London uptake in cycling amongst women is much lower than amongst men, only about 30% of cyclists are women. If you look at data from the Netherlands, for example, where I’m from, women take almost 17% more cycle trips than men and in Berlin, Germany, the uptake is around 50%. Why is it so low in London where women admit they would like to cycle more but feel it’s near impossible to overcome the barriers they are facing?
There is the obvious perception that cycling in London isn’t safe, that there isn’t enough infrastructure.
The fact is that the cycling network grew from 90km in 2016 to now 360km (Source TfL) yet it did little to encourage women to cycle.
The LCC Women’s Network together with JoyRiders Britain CIC and LBK (Londra Bisiklet Kulubu) published a survey they took amongst 1,043 women who cycle in London. Some 34% cent said the physical safety of women needs addressing, 11% felt that the social safety of women needs improving and 9% want to see more local networks which are often more important to women as they tend to evele more locally and often want to cycle with their children.
But a staggering 37% felt that all three of these asks are equally important. The full report can be found on the LCC website.
On the positive, community organisations such as JoyRiders and LBK do vital work to encourage more women from all communities to take up cycling and also lobby for better conditions working closely with LCC.
In Tower Hamlets specifically, JoyRiders are running weekly social bike rides in Poplar and will soon start Learn to Ride lessons on Columbia Road for women by women.
Better Streets for Tower Hamlets 