The results of the research, carried out by researchers from the Faculties of Teacher Training and Physical Activity and Sports Sciences, have shown that women reduce their mobility by bike at night, which is probably due to the different perception of security at this time compared to men. In addition, they circulate less on the outskirts of the city, where there is higher motor traffic, fewer bike lanes and where darkness and risks affect behaviour.

According to Maite Pellicer, one of the researchers of the study: “Despite the efforts made by the institutions to promote the use of active transport, our study has found that women still have to give up certain peripheral areas of the city at night. The main cause of this is the perception of lack of security in some areas. Therefore, we have to emphasise that there is room for improvement in the infrastructure and in the policies used to promote the use of active transport that has to do with mainly with its use by women”.

One of the main results of the study, in which Maite Pellicer, Miquel Pans, Rudi Seifert, Elena López, Xavier García, José Devís and Luís M. González have also participated, is that men have travelled more by bike during the period analysed. Specifically, the percentage of journeys made by them (67%) is double that of them (33%), a fact that shows that the use of the bike is strongly biased by gender. However, this difference between genders is up to 10% lower than in other cities such as Chicago, London or Seville, the latter the city where bicycles are most used in Spain.

The average time per trip is also distinguished by gender, since men spent an average of 11.8 minutes on their journeys, compared to 12.1 minutes for women. In addition, the research team points out, women are likely to move at a slightly slower speed, to achieve greater security.

The research has used as data the more than 5 million journeys recorded from January 2015 to July 2018, which have subsequently been filtered to focus on variables of interest in relation to gender and location.

Article:

Maite Pellicer-Chenoll et al. «Gender differences in bicycle sharing system usage in the city of Valencia». Sustainable Cities and Society.

Link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2020.102556