OPINION
The Gender Imbalance in Cycling
I
magine if a government announced plans for a new transport system that was cheap, quick, and good for your health. But amidst the buoyant excitement and expectation, they quietly added that, while this
will increase transport choices, it’s been primarily designed for men. Women will use the network, but probably only half as much as men.
That may sound hypothetical, but it’s
the reality of our cycling network in Britain today. Men cycle more than twice as often as women, and ninety per cent of women are afraid to cycle in towns and cities. Despite it being an all too familiar picture, those figures still shock me every time I read them. Comparing data from 2018 to 2025, we’ve seen men’s fears
over close overtaking and threatening behaviour decrease, but those fears have remained consistent for women. Similarly, men saw less of a need for physically separated cycle lanes while women highlighted how this would encourage them to cycle more. This shows that while improvements to infrastructure and driver behaviour have made men feel This not only means fewer women enjoying the health benefits of cycling, or a quicker commute, or even just the joy of a bike ride on a sunny day. It means fewer women buying bikes, more cars on the road, and ultimately, an unfair transport system that fails to deliver for all. In our 2025 YouGov poll, women also pointed to roads not feeling safe enough to cycle (36%) and a lack of dedicated cycle routes a missed opportunity for the cycling industry. When half the population feels unable to cycle safely, that is not just a transport problem – it is a market that remains significantly untapped. While over half (58%) of women believe their cycle journeys are limited by safety concerns and a lack of suitable
48 | April 2026
infrastructure, it isn’t just the roads themselves that present a problem. Women are far more likely to receive abuse from drivers and other road users whilst out cycling. Separating cycle traffic from vehicles would massively reduce this problem, but we’re a long way off having a separated cycle path on every road! These horrendous statistics reveal a cultural issue of abuse and harassment that must also be tackled. That’s exactly why Cycling UK launched
the ‘My ride. Our right’ campaign, shining a light on all the reasons why we have a gender divide for those who travel by bike in the UK. We’ve
highlighted the day-to-day experiences women face when making transport choices to politicians and decision makers, pushing for a fairer and more inclusive approach to transport that will get more women cycling. We built on that last October when 3,000 people turned out after dark to support our mass Glow Rides to demand safer cycling for women. This secured huge media coverage, which was followed in January with a debate in Westminster on safety for women while cycling, walking, wheeling and running, led by the MP for Lowestoft, Jess Asato. We worked for months with Jess to secure that debate, issuing briefings to MPs to press them to attend and contribute, and they did! MPs from across the political spectrum spoke about the barriers women face when travelling and exercising in public spaces. Jess opened by describing what she called the “unspoken risk assessment” that many women undertake whenever they leave the house – a series of small but constant decisions about routes, lighting, traffic and personal safety. Those decisions shape how women move around our towns and cities. For many, they determine whether cycling feels like an option at all. Several MPs highlighted the role of high-quality cycling
infrastructure in helping address this imbalance, and that separated cycle lanes and traffic-free routes can dramatically
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