News Sep 2, 2010 at 4:00 am

Are Women and Minorities Missing the Bike Boom?

Comments

1
"It offers no hard numbers tracking bicyclists by race or income, but says anecdotal evidence gleaned from a survey and 70 community meetings..."

How the fuck does anecdotal evidence cost $70-fucking-thousand dollars? Did someone get paid $1000 per meeting to ask a question or two? Was it just $500 per meeting, and then $35,000 to a Soc. major to design the survey?
2
Safety is not the only issue that keeps women from biking. In terms of biking to and from work (which is the commute most folks make on their bikes), there's a huge discrepancy in how women are supposed to look at work and how men are supposed to look.

Most work places don't have showers. My fiance, for instance, couldn't care less if he shows up to work sweaty, and the clothes he wears most days are easy to ride in. I myself (and many women, especially in certain industries) see patients at work and need to show up smelling nice and in nice clothes. That means a lot of packing, preparation and hauling for me if I want to ride and not drive. I won't even mention the concerns of hair and make-up, which a lot of people feel are trivial but which many women (and their bosses) care about.

If you want women to ride, more work-places need showers. Also, it would be nice if bike proponents could change the double-standard between women and men and how we're supposed to look as professionals (that'll be easy, right?)
3
"PORTLAND OFFICIALS HOPE one in four residents will regularly get on a bicycle by 2030"

Does anyone ever study the negative impact of repetitive motion injuries with bicyclists? Sure, the occasional recreational ride may show no problems, but try riding 10-20 miles, day after day. Then there is the possibility of injuries from crashing, taking a spill or a collision. And many injuries to joints and ligaments can become arthritic later in life,too. Just wondering.
4
@ Sarahfina: Excellent point.

@ Captainron: How about the injuries from being in car crashes? "The US Department of Transportation estimates that the typical driver will have a near automobile accident one to two times per month and all will be in a collision of some type on average of every 6 years." I just pulled that from http://www.dcdoctor.com/pages/rightpages_h…

@ Sarah: I've actually looked a little deeper into the numbers from this 70K "study" of only 134 survey respondents (thanks to commenter ROM), who were apparently induced with gift cards to respond. My concern is that if this 70K of taxpayer money had been flushed down the drain on anything OTHER than a project whose aims were to get more minorities biking, you would have been leading the charge to city hall to ask them why the hell we spent 70K on a flimsily done study to learn what we all already knew ("no big surprise," in your words).
5
@CC Ugh, I didn't mean to tell you that incentives were used in this study. I do not have that information. I was trying to explain where some of the cost could have gone. Incentives are commonly used in research projects that involve human subjects.

Take it to Metro, maybe? You have a beef with how they allocate money. I imagine that each year they have *this much* to spend on projects that *involve minority something something*. Then people write grant proposals to suggest how that money should be spent. Then the money is allocated...
6
I messed up: the report says 148 surveys were collected, and the inducements were (somewhat oddly) bike helmets or lights, not gift cards.
7
Huh, i could've sworn that half to bicyclists i see are women & i'm pretty sure alot of 'em ride their bikes to works. But that's just *my* observation. I understand safety being [one] issue, as you're way more exposed on a bike & the anonymity that a closed-in motor vehicle offers can encourage "assholeism' in some people.

As for the race thing: eh, all i can say is i'm Black & i ride a bike all the time. I suppose that makes me some sort of wierd anomaly i guess. Whatever.

Btw, how was this "survey" conducted? B/c noone ever asked ME how i felt about bikes & biking in this city.
8
I'd like to comment on the question about repetitive motion injuries. As a female bike commuter in her 50's, I'll tell you that biking helps with keeping a strong body. I used to have more aches and pains and since I've been biking regularly (15 miles round trip) most of them have gone away. My doctor agrees that the symmetrical motion and regular exercise has made me stronger and healthier.

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