Over 7,000 Women Respond to APBP Survey on Women & Cycling The Association of Pedestrian & Bicycle Professionals (APBP) invited women across the country to participate in an online survey about women and their attitudes and concerns about bicycling.
CEDARBURG, WI—The Association of Pedestrian & Bicycle Professionals (APBP) invited women across the country to participate in an online survey about women and their attitudes and concerns about bicycling. The responses from 7,300 women as of March 28 was much larger than anticipated and serves as the impetus for an ongoing dialog on the topic through APBP’s Women Cycling Project and the Women Cycling Photo & Video Contest.
Preliminary results of the survey were reported at a free APBP webinar on “Writing Women Back into Bicycling” that was held on Wednesday, March 31, 2010 as part of Women’s History Month.
The online “Snapshot in Time Survey” remains open through May 15, 2010 so all women and girls are encouraged to participate at www.surveymonkey.com/s/womencycling
Here are some of the preliminary findings as of March 28, 2010:
59% of respondents use their bikes for some of their daily trips
44% had freedom to ride alone from the age of 7-10 years
The leading uses on these trips are:
Errands: 83%
Stores: 78%
Socializing 79%
Recreational facilities: 70%
On vacation: 93%
1,114 of participants do not have a car
11% percent of all participants are riding more than 80 miles per week during the summer months when the weather is good
70% live in either a medium or large city, 10% live in suburbs and 8% in small town
Respondents’ reasons for cycling:
90%--It’s great exercise and keeps me in shape
88%--I enjoy being in the outdoors
73%--Bicycling reduces my stress
72%--It saves me money
70%--It’s very green and I’m doing my bit
APBP Executive Director Kit Keller comments, “We are delighted with the interest in this topic and the large number of responses we’ve received so far. We look forward to even greater response between now and May 15 and will issue a final report once the survey has closed.”
The high level of energy for and interest in the topic of women and cycling has stirred APBP to create an ongoing public website group called The Women Cycling Project at https://apbp.site-ym.com/members/group.asp?id=63197.
A work in progress, APBP is offering this public group as an outgrowth of the International Scan implementation recommendations and invites discussion about how to change transportation culture by engaging more women in sustainable transportation. This space will offer information about resources, barriers, and successes so that more women can cycle more places more often and provide a site for people to offer suggestions and share experiences.
APBP has also announced an exciting collaboration with partners at the Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center for a Women Cycling Photo & Video Contest to elicit more photos of women and girls on their bicycles. The directions for submitting a photo or video can be found on www.pedbikeimages.org.
Entrants should note in the description "APBP Women Cycling Photo & Video contest." A variety of prizes will be awarded to winners. More information about the contest and prizes is available at https://apbp.site-ym.com/members/group.asp?id=63197
The contest will remain open for several months; the closing date will be posted on the APBP Web site.
The Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals provides expertise for sustainable transportation and is the only professional membership organization for the discipline of pedestrian and bicycle transportation. APBP members – employees of all levels of government, consulting firms and non-profits--work in the engineering, planning, landscape architecture, police, safety, health and promotion fields and specialize in improving conditions for bicycling and walking. For more information about the organization, visit www.apbp.org.
