- Conference
- 2010 National Women's Conference
- Date
- 19 October 2009
- Decision
- Carried as Amended
In early 2009 SUSTRANS (sustainable transport Charity) commissioned a survey of one thousand women to better understand why women only travel by bike for less than one per cent of journeys in the UK compared to fifteen per cent of journeys in the Netherlands.
SUSTRANS found that while many women have access to a bike that they can use, very few are choosing to use them regularly; 43 per cent of women have access to a bike but only 4 per cent of women use a bike more than once a week
SUSTRANS asked women what was preventing them from travelling by bike more often or at all; not feeling safe was the most common reason given.
SUSTRANS asked women what change would most encourage women to cycle more; 67% of women said that cycle lanes separated from traffic would be the most effective way of enabling women to cycle more.
Most women don’t ride bikes because they don’t feel it’s safe for them to cycle on our roads.
Yet Cycling is healthy, both for you as an individual, and for the community you live in. That’s the conclusion of the British Medical Association’s report, ‘Cycling: Towards Health and Safety’.
1)Cycling regularly will improve your fitness and can help you live a long and healthy life.
2)Riding a bike can help you maintain a healthy weight.
3)Three quarters of all personal journeys are less than 5 miles long – that’s half an hour on a bike.
SUSTRANS believes it is possible to achieve the levels of cycling here in the UK that exist in the Netherlands. SUSTRANS believe that a much greater investment in creating a safer cycling environment, in particular for the creation of many more cycle paths separated from traffic, would go a long way towards enabling more women to cycle.
SUSTRANS will press governments at national, regional and local level to invest far more in creating a safer environment for everyone who would like to cycle so that more women feel that they have this choice. As part of this campaign in December 2009 SUSTRANS will be presenting their Motion for Women petition to Government
Conference calls upon the National Women’s Committee to:
a)Support the SUSTRANS Motion for Women Campaign,
b)Liaise with Labour Link to raise awareness amongst politicians of the survey results and of the need for cyclepaths.
c)Where possible promote cycling as an environmentally friendly and healthy method of transportation for women and by encouraging the creation of more cycling buses.