Pedal power

Richard Wyatt

[A lot of bikes parked up by Bath Spa Station]

Today – August 7th – was Cycle to Work Day, and our Bath MP Wera Hobhouse celebrated it by calling on the Government to address barriers to cycling.

Cycle to Work Day encourages people across the UK to choose cycling over driving or public transport for their daily commute, helping to reduce emissions, improve air quality, and promote personal wellbeing.

Mrs Hobhouse used the occasion to highlight the barriers that still prevent many people, especially women, from choosing cycling as a safe, accessible, and affordable form of transport.

In Parliament earlier this year, the Bath MP pressed the Government to address the gender ‘pedal gap’: the disproportionate number of women who do not cycle due to concerns over road safety, lack of infrastructure, and night-time visibility. 

This follows data from Lime’s ‘Tackling The Gender ‘Pedal Gap’: Women’s Night Safety Report 2023’ that 71% of women in the UK never cycle in comparison to 54% of men. This gender ‘pedal-gap’ increases to 74% for women from ethnic minority backgrounds (compared to 57% of men respectively).

Lime is the UK’s largest shared provider of electric bikes and scooters; however, currently, approximately only a quarter of Lime’s riders in the UK identify as female.

Speaking on the importance of breaking barriers to cycling, Wera Hobhouse, Liberal Democrat MP for Bath, commented: 

“Cycle to Work Day is a fantastic celebration of the many benefits of active travel to our health, our environment, and our cities. But across the UK, too many people are still held back from making the switch due to poor infrastructure and safety concerns.

“If we’re serious about getting more people cycling, we need to close the gender pedal gap. To do this, we need a serious investment in safe, accessible cycle routes and better street lighting for night-time cycling. Only then will we truly be able to shift gears towards a more equal and sustainable future.”

Published by Richard Wyatt

Freelance Journalist, broadcaster, columnist and local historian. Director of Bath Newseum. Married and lives in Bath. Interested in local history, architecture and visual display in museums and urban spaces.

4 Comments

  1. Pavements, canal towbaths are now being taken over by cyclists.
    Pedestrian are now at risk of being run over
    Order is desperately needed and no go zones established . Westbikes and scooters are being left anywhere mostly on pavements. Pulteney Road was littered with them this morning .
    Stop this debacle !

    1. Like it or not Nigel – the canal towpath is officially part of the National Cycle Network. In a shared space everyone should make room for everyone else.

  2. Isn’t the real issue that in reality most people are simply not interested in cycling. As a child and teenager in the 1960/70s I cycled, but as soon as I obtained my driving licence I stopped. I am quite happy to walk and use buses, trains and trams where available, as well as drive a car, but have no interest in cycling, particularly in a hilly city such as Bath. If I lived at the bottom of the valley, and only wanted to travel West and East, I might be more inclined to cycle, but even then it is nor particularly appealing. The real myth is that cycling was ever a major part of Britain’s transport system. When cycling was at its zenith the UK was a very different place, and even so it didn’t make up a huge proportion of journeys. You would probably have to go back to the 1940/50s, when most people lived close to where they worked, supermarkets and the weekly shop were 30 to 40 years in the future – most houses didn’t have a fridge and people shopped daily for fresh food at their local butcher, greengrocer, bakery and fishmonger, and dairy products arrived daily at the doorstep from the milkman (they were all male then). Trying to wind the clock back simply won’t work. We changed where we live and how we live based firstly on trams and buses and later on access to cars. Believing we can leave everything else unchanged, but expect people to embrace cycling, is simply delusional.

  3. Well said, Nick Morgan. You’ve hit the nail bang on the head. Many many people in Bath are older in age, or too incapacitated to cycle.
    To expect everyone to ‘get on their bikes’ shows a complete lack of understanding by BANES to grasp the demographics of its residents.
    And whatever a tiny minority of councillors may suggest, getting on a bike and riding through traffic is NOT healthy – vehicular pollutants cause lung diseases, and risk of accident while on a bike in traffic is a real fear to many.

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