To boost urban bicycling, figure out what women want

Did you know that women are an indicator species for the bikeability of an area? If you want to know how bikeable your neighborhood is, just go out and count the number of female cyclists:

• If I do a count of the competitive "noon-iacs" (as one of my friends calls them) then the number is quite low - maybe in the 25% range.
  
• If I go out and look at the recreational cyclists on Foothill Blvd the number goes up quite a bit but is still less than 50%.
  
• If I look at the Green Town Los Altos meetings, I am usually the only male that attends on bicycle but there are 2-3 women that show up on bikes.

Here is an interesting article from the Scientific American on the how to increase the cycling population in any given area:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=getting-more-bicyclists-on-the-road

Every Ride Counts!
Jon