What Women Want

Except for a brief appearance by Colleen, women were absent from ABC's Bike Commuter Breakfast this morning. I was disappointed, because I was looking for something only a woman can provide.

The Scientific American recently ran an article about what it takes to get more cyclists on the roads. The byline of this article summarizes the conclusion: "To boost urban bicycling, figure out what women want".

Now, men have been trying to figure out what women want for ages, and I can't say that too much progress has been made, but as the guys came in and sat down, we announced the topic of conversation: "What do Women Want". Each of us could only look at the ground and shake our head.

We were on more comfortable ground once we narrowed this topic to what women want from cycling.

Since no women were present, we were left to form our own opinions of what women look for in cycling:

We agreed that a cultural shift without the women being involved really isn't a cultural shift. It would just be the guys doing their own thing, and in Atlanta, that's exactly what cycling is: a testosterone-fueled race. Guys do like testing themselves against others, but this doesn't easily translate to running errands. Perhaps an intermediate stage between racing and utility cycling would be represented by the following exchange:

"I can beat you up this hill towing my 8-year-old to soccer practice."

"Yeah, well I'm carrying 3 gallons of milk, 24 rolls of toilet paper, and about 26 pounds of canned goods."

Another aspect of the cultural shift is exemplified by Sweet Georgia Brown, a fellow blogger who endorses the "slow bicycle" movement (Style over Speed). Her posts are consistently about how one looks on a bike instead of how much the bike weighs. And what you wear on a bike just starts the conversation about grease.

Heels on Wheels is a dress-related exploration of what women want. Literally. A group of women plan to get dressed up, hop on bikes and go "bar hopping" along Peachtree. (I could be confusing this with "What Men Want".)

The article mentions women being more risk-averse. This suggests that one measurement of a cycling facility's usefulness can be determined by the ratio of female cyclists to male cyclists. Certainly cycling training that boosts skills and confidence can expand the range of routes a rider will find within their acceptable level of risk, but to compare two routes, look at the routes that females prefer.

And then, there's this quote from "Stuff White People Like" about what women want from cycling:

White women have a lot of fantasies about idealized lives, and one of them is living in Europe and riding around an old city on one of these bikes. They dream about waking up and riding to a little cafe, then visiting bakeries and cheese shops and finally riding home to prepare a fancy meal for their friends who will all eat under a canopy with white Christmas lights. This information can be used to help gain the trust/admiration of a white woman, especially if you can pull off a lie about how your mother told you about how she used to do all of these things when she was younger.

OK, women. Now's your chance to set the record straight. What do you want?

Commute Summary

Round Trip Distance: 5.6
Number of Cyclists seen: 4 on the way over, 6 at breakfast, and lost count on the way back, but more than 20.
Weather: Getting close to the limits of nothing more than shorts and a technical shirt. Most people wearing a wind-breaker.