More women on bicycles: an urban transport policy in favor of health and equality
More women on bicycles: an urban transport policy in favor of health and equality
August 2022
Cycling is an alternative mode of mobility with great benefits for physical and mental health. It also helps to improve urban and environmental indicators.
And although it is an increasingly popular means of transportation in cities in the region, such as Bogota, it is still more common to see men cycling than women, as there are risks that prevent more women from choosing the bicycle for transportation.
According to the Bogotá Mayor's Office, currently only 24% of trips made by bicycle in the city are made by women.
Lorena Nieto lives in the Colombian capital and her only means of transportation is a bicycle. She still remembers the day she was a victim of violence in the streets: "It was horrible. I was in shock. I didn't know what to do. Many of us are violated while riding our bicycles.
Harassment, abuse, lack of road safety, such as poor infrastructure of bike paths, lighting, among others, are some of the challenges that women who ride bicycles face daily, with consequences for their physical and mental health.
The ‘Curvas en Bici’ initiative has been dedicated to helping women overcome these obstacles since it began in 2017. Through "cycle experiences", it promotes women's use of bicycles.
Lorena Nieto
"We meet at strategic points and ride on Sundays on Bogotá's ciclovía or at the municipal level. We ride for between 30 and 50 kilometers and also do basic mechanics workshops," says Ángela Sánchez, founder of Curvas en Bici.
"These meetings have led to a support network and every time something happens; a robbery, an abuse, or some kind of violence, we report it among ourselves and as a community we give each other support before activating the emergency services," says Sanchez, 27 years old. This initiative currently has 450 registered women from 20 localities in Bogotá.
In response to the demands of these women and others, the local government is seeking to implement a public policy on bicycles with goals for 2039.
"We agreed with the different entities of the Mayor's Office, with the private sector and with academia, to work on five concrete objectives: more road safety, more personal safety, more and better trips by bicycle and more bicycles for everyone. We want to make the bicycle a method and a mechanism to have a more inclusive society. This, of course, requires a series of actions and budgets aimed at improving conditions for our women," says Nicolás Estupiñán, Bogotá's Secretary of Mobility.
One of the goals of Bogotá's public bicycle policy is to achieve parity of trips with the participation of the communities themselves and other organizations, and to go from 24% to 50% of trips made by women.
Bogota's initiative is one of five cities being developed through the Global Project on Urban Governance for Health of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO/WHO). In this project, the mayors of Bogota (Colombia), Mexico City (Mexico), Khulna (Bangladesh), Douala (Cameroon) and Tunis (Tunisia) committed to address informal settlements, basic public services and social cohesion through intersectoral collaboration and participatory urban governance for health and well-being, promoting social innovations and dialogues at the local level.
María Fernanda Ramírez, bike messenger.
Eliana González, Director "Mamacitas en Bici"
Dr. Ginna Tambini, Representative in Colombia of PAHO/WHO, points out that "reaching agreements that become public policies in favor of health, as is the case of the contribution of women to the public bicycle policy of Bogota, has also highlighted the importance of their role, not only in their homes, but in the community and in the institutions where they work".
The objective of this new public policy is to promote equity and enable the emergence of activities led by women to increase their use of bicycles.
An example of these initiatives is the bike messaging startup Queens Messengers, founded in 2018. Its creator, María Fernanda Ramírez, seeks to give women job opportunities and provide them with tools so they know what to do in situations such as robberies or other cases of violence. Today, this bike messenger service has around 100 allies.
"Clearly, the experience of these women on bicycles shows the importance of community participation and taking action to make a transformation, despite the times we are living in with the COVID-19 pandemic," adds Dr. Tambini.
The Global Project on Urban Governance for Health contributes to PAHO/WHO's efforts to expand technical and policy advice to Member States and city officials to strengthen urban health, with an emphasis on social participation as a key element for positive and lasting impact.
