“We’ve learnt to normalise rubbish behaviour”: What stops women cycling? Abuse, intimidation, and how to make cycling safe for everyone

The road.cc Podcast

At the start of 2024, the London Cycling Campaign’s Women’s Network, a coalition of cycling groups in the capital, published a report, titled ‘What Stops Women Cycling in London?’, which detailed the shocking extent to which women riding their bikes in the capital face a barrage of verbal and physical abuse, sexual harassment, and intimidation from motorists and other road users.

The report, which surveyed 1,000 women who cycle in London, found that nine out of ten said they’d experienced abuse while riding their bikes, and almost 80 per cent said this gendered harassment and intimidation – including the intimidatory use of vehicles – happened at least once a month, with one in five revealing that it had made them give up cycling, either temporarily or permanently.

On episode 70 of the road.cc Podcast, Ryan is joined by Eilidh Murray, the London Cycling Campaign’s Chair of Trustees, and Kate Bartlett from the Women’s Network to discuss the report’s shocking findings, its accompanying hard-hitting video, the gendered abuse and aggression directed towards female cyclists on a shockingly prevalent basis, how anti-cycling and misogynist behaviour overlap, and why such behaviour has been “normalised” by those on the receiving end of it.

Kate and Eilidh also explore in-depth the ways in which we can all make cycling safer for women, including the need for education to change the patterns of behaviour of both motorists and their fellow cyclists, and the implementation of safe, protected, joined-up infrastructure which also focuses on the needs of women, as well as the Women’s Network’s ambition, through the report and its group rides and activities, to make cycling a safe, inclusive space for all.
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