On International Women' Day

In honor of International Women’s Day, I have a challenge to offer: we need more women’s voices in the Minneapolis bicycling community.  As a member of the Minneapolis Bicycle Coalition board of directors and a citizen representative on the Minneapolis Bicycle Advisory Committee, I am proud to work with many amazing women (and men) to make bicycling better in Minneapolis.

Too often, though, the voices we hear are men’s – even when we are talking about getting more women to bicycle!  It is my contention (feel free to disagree) that as long as women are not in a leadership role in designing streets, commenting about streets, writing about streets, and speaking about streets, we still have a long way to go.

We have higher than average rates of bicycling among women in the Twin Cities, a testament to our trail system and a growing network of safe and inviting on-street facilities.  But too often when bicycling issues are discussed, I sit at tables where only a handful of women are represented.  We have all types of women cyclists in Minneapolis – frazzled moms like me, women who know how to build and fix bikes, women who lead neighborhood bike rides and trail watches.  I hope to hear more of their voices in the debate about how to design our streets.

What do you think?