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TRANSCRIPT
Aisling: Yeah, so the first time a car hit me. It was a sunny day, and I was just cycling home. I was trying to get home quickly.
Kathleen: That’s Aisling Heavey. She works as a physical therapist in downtown Dublin.
Aisling: I left work a little bit early.
Kathleen: She’s just recently taken up cycling to and from work. Partly because public transport isn’t great (and)
Aisling: I was kind of very conscious of the environmental impact of me driving every day to work when it was so close, and just the fact of being stuck in traffic and being another car on the road when I didn’t need to be.
Kathleen: She’s nervous at first, even contacting a local cycling association that offers advice on the safest routes through Dublin. She gets a helmet, a neon yellow vest, installs a camera on her bike and of course makes sure she knows the rules of the road.
Every day she takes the route along Dublin’s leafy Grand Canal with its swans and ducks. She knows the route well.
Aisling: So, I was cycling home along my normal route.
Kathleen: She’s in the bike lane on the road with the other traffic and is coming up to an intersection.
Aisling: It was a green light, bicycle light, and the green light for the cars to go.
Kathleen: Aisling cycles on straight, passing the line of cars. But suddenly a driver turns left at the traffic light crossing over the bike lane
Aisling: I kind of hit his car and went over my bike. I landed on my hands, both my hands and both my knees, and both my thigh the front of my thighs hit the handlebars.
Kathleen: The camera on her bike captures it all. The driver stops and rushes out. He’s shaken and upset and VERY apologetic. He had signaled but it was too late for Aisling to see, and he hadn’t noticed her.
Another woman with her baby and an off-duty police officer also stop to help.
Aisling: They were asking me loads of questions, and I was just crying and really upset and kind of in shock.
Kathleen: Aisling’s a physical therapist so the first thing she starts to do is to try to figure out if she has sustained any bad injuries.
Aisling: I was just trying to move my knees, move my hands and my wrists, just see what was painful.My knees were very painful, so I was quite worried that I had fractured one of my kneecaps or broken one of my kneecaps, and I was quite worried about my hand as well.
Kathleen: And while she’s doing this, another person approaches her…
Aisling: I was sat there and I was really upset, a man came over and started shouting, basically saying I was in the wrong, that it was a red cycle light and I shouldn’t have been cycling, basically, which is completely wrong.
Kathleen: The off-duty cop shoos the man away and Aisling gets checked out in hospital, has some x-rays. Luckily, she’s just badly bruised. The entire incident, though, leaves her shaken. But she’s determined to keep cycling.
Aisling: Yeah, I think I was nervous, but I had seen how much cycling had improved my life. Like my you know, my mom was like, Aisling, don’t cycle, like, you know, she was so scared. My partner was the same. But I was kinda like, look, there are things I could have done in that situation maybe and the outcome might have been different. So like the flashing lights, maybe slowing down a bit, you know, so I was like, okay, well, I know there are things I can change with that one.
Kathleen: Aisling makes all those changes, including adding extra flashing lights to her bike to make herself more visible to cars. She has mirrors so she can see what is behind her and is extra careful at intersections where cars can turn across the bike path.
But within months … she gets hit… again.
Aisling: I think on the second incident, rather than being angry, I was more just deflated. Like I was more just like, God, this is what it’s gonna be like, you know?
Kathleen: What happened to Aisling is part of a worrying trend.
In a recent survey, Irish women cited aggressive behavior and lack of safety as the main reasons for not getting in the saddle. And the trend isn’t isolated to Ireland — from Dublin and Delhi to Dallas, men are leading the pack.
I’m Kathleen Schuster and on this episode of Living Planet, we’ll be exploring the gender gap in cycling, — and why making it easier for women to cycle could mean better physical and mental health, cleaner air, and more sustainable cities for everyone.
Atmo: Music
Kathleen: We’re going to come back to Aisling’s story in a bit.
But first, it’s important to get the bigger picture on how big this gender gap is when it comes to riding bikes.
Around the world, men are about seven percent more likely than women to cycle to work. In the US, that gap rises to 17 percent. In the UK, it’s around 12 percent.
This gap is something that Melissa Bruntlett also experienced firsthand in Vancouver, when she and her husband decided to ditch the family car for bikes back in 2010.
Melissa: For me as a woman, I would say that I in Vancouver I was probably one of those that was really, you know, I didn’t want to, I was sort of trying to buck the trends. It’s okay, sure. How every one else cycled, you know, made sense. But I was like, no, I’m gonna cycle in a dress and a skirt on an upright bike to show that it’s possible, that it can be normal. But was still sort of one of the odd people out.
Kathleen: So basically, you don’t need to be decked out in Lycra shorts and clicky shoes to cycle. In Canada, women make up about a third those commuting by bicycle. Even though her Vancouver neighborhood was relatively bike friendly, people had lots of questions for her.
Melissa: How do you make that work? How do you get the kids to school or daycare activities with no car? and why is the bike part of that? It was really for me sharing that with people, that’s how it all got started is you know, the the ease of cycling if the city makes it possible, but also the connection that we had together. not saying that it’s something for everybody all the time, but that it’s a really nice option if you can make it work.
Kathleen: And that’s how Melissa, who had originally studied fashion design, accidentally became a professional cycling advocate, alongside her husband Chris.
Melissa: So as Chris likes to say, it’s snowballed out of control into yeah, becoming accidental world advocates for cycling.
Kathleen: But it wasn’t until 2019 when Melissa and her family relocated to the small city of Delft in the Netherlands…
Melissa: where almost half, if not more than half, of the cyclists on the road are also women.
Kathleen: .. that she fully understood how much of a difference the cycling gap made.
When she was out running errands or dropping her kids to school on the bike, she would pass by other moms doing the same or women cycling in heels and suits to work.
Melissa: They’re also dressed in just what they’re going to work or going to the shops in or going, you know, just everyday clothes to move around, and suddenly feeling like you’re not isolated as much. You’re not an anomaly. You’re just part of yeah, normality in a way. And there’s something quite special to that. And it it also helps you feel a lot more confident, but then a lot less isolated, when you’re moving through the city.
Kathleen: After she experienced what Delft had to offer, Melissa wanted to dispel the idea that what the Netherlands had done with cycling could only happen there. Other countries could implement their own version.
Melissa: And on one hand it’s amazing to realize that I suddenly live in this space and to not have to stress anymore, to not have to think about which routes I take, which will be safer, or, you know, what people might be thinking. but yeah, also just to like yeah, to be able to let go a bit, which I think for a lot of women sometimes we’re moving through cities, it you know, especially if we make the decision to walk and cycle, you’re in this hyper-vigilant mode and it’s a totally different experience in a lot of ways. It’s yeah, there’s just a bit of calm, but also for me this drive even more to try to export that and make it possible for other people because it shouldn’t just be something that for those of us that have the privilege to move here get to experience. It should be something that everyone gets to experience.
Kathleen: But how did Delft and, as a result, the rest of the Netherlands become so good at getting women on bikes?
Melissa: Well, I want to start out by saying that the cycling rates here, you know, where it is more women than men, they’re not like this grand master plan of getting more women on bikes. It’s a little bit of a happy accident that occurred.
70s disco music and news medley
Kathleen: All sounds eerily familiar, right? Anyway, a number of things were happening at once
Melissa: In the early 70s that sort of pushed the Netherlands on this cycle trajectory. one being the road safety crisis, so at its peak we had over 3,000 people dying on Dutch streets, nearly 500 of them being children.
Kathleen: And that sparks a lot of protest, including one calling to Stop de Kindermoord —or Stop Child Murder — because of the number children being killed in road accidents with cars.
Melissa: That was one moment that shifted that narrative. At the same time as the OPEC oil crisis, where the government had to step in and ration oil or petrol so that people could drive still and making car-free Sundays.
Kathleen: That helped people remember what towns and cities were like before cars took over — calmer, safer and more room for pedestrians, and cyclists and for just enjoying public space.
So, the Dutch government starts experimenting. They build demonstration cycling routes in two major cities, Tilburg and The Hague. But both fail to attract support or — more importantly — cyclists. Critics say they don’t work, because the infrastructure is confusing and inconsistent. But also, because they force people to detour instead of taking the most direct route, meaning they just weren’t convenient. And we all love convenience.
Melissa: And it took a lot of trial and error and a lot of figuring it out, a lot of backlash, just like what we see in Ireland and in other places around the world.
Kathleen: That backlash in The Hague — a city better known for prosecuting international war criminals — comes from a group of local shopkeepers who end up before the court for hiring construction workers to dig up bike paths in the dead of night.
But back to Delft. Dutch officials take the lessons from their two failed cycling infrastructure attempts and start listening to what people really need. Cycling isn’t just about getting directly from A to B like the home to work commute, which was largely dominated by male mobility patterns at the time, says Melissa. It’s also about all the trips in between.
Melissa: They were thinking at this network level. So very basically, rather than just having like one network for bikes, there’s almost like three layers of networks here where you have you have that commuting sort of fast travel A to B kind of network, but then you have a little more fine-grained that connects you to, you know, essential places like shops or schools or things like that. And then you have right down to the neighborhood level, thinking about how people are moving from home to, you know, neighborhood locations and how each of those connects.
Kathleen: That’s what has made all the difference in Delft.
Melissa: And so Delft is actually the home of the first cycling network that is now ubiquitous throughout the country and you see that. You see, like I’m watching bikes go past our house right now on one of the neighborhood networks to connect them to the one of the more major networks that takes them right to the train station.
Kathleen: That happy accident of getting more women to cycle Melissa mentioned earlier: This is what she meant. Because women do much more of something called “trip chaining” — basically making lots of stops over shorter distances. And while safety is important for women, whether that’s having segregated cycling lanes so they’re not sharing the road with cars or avoiding street harassment and lonely, dark streets…
Melissa: If the infrastructure that keeps you safe isn’t taking you where you want to go, then it doesn’t make sense, especially for women whose trips are much more, I refer to them being much more of like a spider web. So, it’s not a direct A to B for a lot of women that are just commuting to and from work. They’re picking up kids or dropping them off at school. They’re going to the store, they’re taking care of elderly family. You know, doing any myriad number of trips that usually are like an A to C to B to D and then back to A kind of trip. And if the network doesn’t support that, if it doesn’t make it practical and time competitive, then that’s a big barrier when lives are already so busy for most women around the world.
Kathleen: Today the Netherlands has more than 38,000 kilometers or nearly 23,600 miles of bike lane for its 23 million or so bicycles.
More than a quarter of trips are made by bicycle. For trips under 5 kilometers, that share is even higher, up to nearly 45%. That’s compared to just 2% in Ireland and around 1% in Canada and the US.
One reason this matters is because cars and trucks running on gasoline and diesel are a major source of air pollution. They also account for about 10% of annual global emissions.
Poor air quality has been linked to a range of health problems, from asthma and bronchitis to heart disease, cancer and dementia.
In 2023, Dutch cyclists clocked up more than 15 billion kilometers on two wheels cutting emissions by nearly 2 percent. That’s the equivalent of taking over half a million gas-powered cars off the road for a year. And higher cycling rates aren’t just good for the environment. They’re also good for physical and mental health, just like other forms of active travel, such as walking, Regular light cycling is associated with better cardiovascular outcomes, improved sleep, and benefits overall wellbeing.
So, how does the Netherlands compare to other countries with its own gender gap in cycling? Well, basically, the gap just doesn’t exist. In fact, it’s estimated that slightly more women are cycling than men.
The cycling infrastructure there has played a big role in bridging that gap.
Without it, the roads are less safe for all cyclists, but as we established earlier, women are more likely to give up on cycling altogether over safety issues.
Aisling, the Irish cyclist we heard from earlier, says cycling has changed her life.
Before she started, she used to get really fatigued because she suffered from long COVID. But that changed once she started biking everywhere.
Aisling: I was thinking to myself, why haven’t I done this years before now? so it was brilliant. I found I found cycling so good for my health, my physical health and my mental health.
Kathleen: So, after her accident, she kept going. Which is why what happened next hit her even harder.
It’s a dark November morning. Aisling is biking to work. It’s been roughly six months since her first accident. And she has taken all the necessary measures to ensure she doesn’t get overlooked by cars.
Aisling: My friends would say I’m lit up like a Christmas tree. I’m all high-vis, high-vis gloves, high-vis jacket.. So like I look like a clown or something. and I have lights. Obviously at that time I did have my flashing lights on, actually.
Kathleen: She cycles down the unprotected bike path along what’s usually a busy street. But this early in the morning… it wasn’t
Aisling: I was thinking, God, this is actually one of the calmer mornings, like this is a lovely morning. I was like just thinking, how lucky am I to be able to cycle and everything’s great. I was thinking really positive that morning, which I don’t know if it was good or bad.
I had slowed down because it was a red light, so I was gonna wait, and then it went green, so I started going forwards again.
Kathleen: At the intersection, she sees a car slowly driving out of a small one-way street to her left. Cars coming from here are supposed to yield to traffic and pedestrians as they merge onto the main street Aisling is on.
Aisling: So I thought this person was yielding because it was so slow and I was going past. But then they just didn’t stop. So they hit me where my left ankle was. So like in the middle of my bike.
So I was actually in front of the car when they hit me. So it was simply a case of like either he had his head down or was on the phone or something. I don’t know.
Kathleen: Aisling falls out onto a two-lane road.
Aisling: Luckily there were no cars coming. Like it was a very, very quiet morning, as I said. Normally that road is very busy. and I think like you like it was just the shock of it. I think in the video I’m like no no no no, Because I’m like, this hasn’t happened again. Like in one year, I haven’t had two accidents.
Kathleen: Again, the driver stops and is very apologetic. Luckily, Aisling is physically unscathed.
Aisling: That incident was a lot harder for me to process psychologically, even though it was less traumatic physically. And it was simply because I had done everything completely right. There was nothing I could change about what I did that day that would have led to any other outcome. I could not change anything.
Kathleen: She had her flashing lights, she was wearing high-visibility clothing, and she was cycling slowly.
Aisling: You can wear the high-viz, you can have all the lights, you can have everything, but at the same time, you can’t prevent a car driving into you if they’re not looking at the road.
I kind of was like, this is now, this is me, I have to stop cycling.
Kathleen: But personal responsibility can only get cyclists and drivers so far. Cyclists are vulnerable road users. While wearing a helmet significantly reduces the risk of serious head injury in accidents, it can’t prevent other injuries, of course. In 2024, nearly 2000 cyclists died on European Union roads. 65% were killed in collisions with cars, heavy goods trucks or vans. EU roads have actually become safer for drivers and more dangerous for cyclists. In the US, the figure was 1100 in the same year.
Aisling: I think I’d love if every driver like cycled a little bit in Dublin. I think that would be great. I saw a video online of like it was I don’t know if it was kind of a joke or something, but they had bus drivers or truck drivers go on like a static bike and like get a bus or a truck to pass them quite close. And like just so you know what it feels like, you know, so you can take a little bit more care the next time and yeah have a bit of an experience.
Kathleen: Aisling has had several other near misses caused by drivers not signaling a left turn or just not seeing her. She believes the one thing that will make cycling safer in Dublin, is continuing to improve infrastructure and keep cycle lanes protected from motor vehicles. Like in the Netherlands.
Accidents still happen there, and have in fact, been increasing in recent years partly due to the rise of much faster and heavier e-bikes. But the country is still regarded as one of the best places to cycle.
And Melissa is working to help other cities adopt the Dutch approach with the consultancy she founded called Modacity Creative. She holds workshops and seminars with government agencies and transport authorities to promote sustainable transport infrastructure that promotes bicycles and pedestrians.
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Melissa says it’s not about pitting different kinds of roads users against each other. The aim is to listen to what communities really need and give people options, because not everyone can drive or wants to drive.
Melissa: We just assume everyone is, you know, fully able-bodied, you know, adult person. We forget that, you know, for some people with disabilities, cycling is a very reasonable and the sometimes the only realistic option for moving around independently. You know, we talk a lot about children, but it’s important to remember that kids can’t drive. And so, you know, cycling for them is this huge independent moment. It’s not we want everyone to get on a bike and stop driving. It’s no, we want to make sure that you can still still drive, you person who needs to drive. But for all of these other groups that need another way of moving, we’re giving those options to them as well and ultimately making things easier for everyone
Kathleen: Having more women at the planning table would also help to make cities more navigable for everyone, not just when it comes to cycling. Women, as Melissa points out, are not one amorphous blob who all have the same experiences. But if you think about it from like just sort of average perspective of, you know, let’s say fifty women [Tail off]
Kathleen: At least one of those women will be a mother moving around the city with her kids, there’ll be longer crossing times at lights, and curb cuts for prams. That makes it easier for people using wheelchairs and mobility aids to get around. And
Melissa: If you’re looking at it from a 20-year-old student, her experience of social safety will probably will have an influence on you know that experience for someone who is a new immigrant to a community, doesn’t know the neighborhood, is worried about, you know, these spaces. Generally speaking, if we take an intersectional approach and include women of varying backgrounds, abilities, and ages into the decision, into the engagement process, we ultimately end up with more inclusive spaces for everyone.
Kathleen: One thing that is important to Melissa personally but that she rarely mentions in her workshops is climate change because
Melissa: It’s not part of the reason that they make the decisions they do for any number of reasons, whether that’s political or economical. And so I find if we focus more on what people value in terms of what they want for a community space, why did you move to a space? Well, you wanted to have a wonderful space to a place to raise your kids, for example, then focus on that more so than focusing on, well, this will be better for the planet, because at the end of the day, you know. how i it still comes back to these ideas of feeling but how we feel will dictate how we move. and if we feel comfortable, if we feel that our children are safe, that, you know, as we age we can continue to move quite comfortably, then those values ring more true than, you know, this will hopefully help to reduce the planet warming.
Kathleen: Despite her misgivings, Aisling is cycling again after going therapy to help process and overcome her anger over being knocked down twice. She’s even drawn something positive from it.
Aisling: It was a bit of a kind of silver lining actually because it made me look at the commute that I was doing and you know I didn’t I didn’t particularly like that commute. It was very it was very dangerous anyway and it was very stressful. So my commute at the moment is about seven kilo meters each way. And I’m going from North City over around to the south side of the city. I tried to calculate it one day and I think like 65% of my commute now is completely segregated cycle lanes, which is amazing.
Kathleen: It’s slightly longer than her previous route but now
Aisling: I feel super safe. I feel protected.
Kathleen: There’s a lot to check out on her new route
Aisling: I can see all the birds, herons, moorhens, baby ducks, all this kind of stuff
Kathleen: It’s also connected her to the places and people around her.
Aisling: Like you see some lovely stuff as well. You just see people looking out for each other, or like, you know, you’re giving way to the cyclist, you’re letting them go, or like you’re just kind of being respectful of people and you can I think it’s easier for people to do that as well when you’re on a bike because you can see the person’s face. I think it’s hard for people to do that when they’re in cars, they might not give way or my because you’re in a box and you can’t necessarily like see the person very well.
Kathleen: And while Aisling says, she would be hesitant to recommend cycling in Dublin unless there’s a safe route, she’s glad she didn’t have to put her bike away for good.
Aisling: I was so happy. I was actually so happy because I was like, I can keep cycling now…
