The Great British Bike Divide: Why are so few women and girls cycling?
February 27, 2025
If you ever wanted proof that Britain is a land of quietly baked-in inequality, take a look at who’s on a bike. A new report from Sustrans has confirmed what many have long suspected; cycling in the UK is still a largely male pursuit, and the problem starts young. Almost twice as many boys as girls cycle regularly, a discrepancy that echoes into the adult world, where only half as many women as men take to two wheels.
The gender gap in cycling isn’t about preference - it’s about safety, infrastructure, and a country that has somehow managed to make the act of riding a bike on many roads feel as appealing as volunteering as a human traffic cone on the M25.
The report found that 78% of children support more separated cycle lanes, and 81% want more quiet paths. And yet, the UK still insists on treating proper cycling infrastructure as some kind of whimsical luxury, rather than the basic provision it so clearly is.
Now, you could argue that Britain is just a uniquely car-worshipping nation, built on an unholy alliance between the motoring lobby, the media, and the kind of local councillors who consider LTNs the start of a Marxist coup. But the numbers in this report suggest something even more troubling; the barriers to cycling aren’t just about infrastructure - they’re about culture. By the time girls reach their teenage years, they are significantly less likely to be physically active than boys. And by adulthood, many have been successfully conditioned to believe that cycling - especially on British roads - is simply not for them.
Of course, the usual suspects will tell us that women just don’t want to cycle, in the same tone they might use to claim more women don’t become CEOs because they’re naturally drawn to scrapbooking. But the evidence doesn’t back that up. In places where cycling is safe, accessible, and actually treated as a serious mode of transport - think the Netherlands, Denmark, even parts of Germany - the gender split is almost equal. Women ride bikes because, shockingly, they aren’t constantly dodging Range Rovers piloted by drivers who treat Highway Code violations as a badge of honour.
So, what’s stopping us from fixing this? Lack of political will, mostly. The government’s usual strategy is to mumble something about active travel being important, announce a pitiful investment in cycling that amounts to about the cost of resurfacing a single slip road. And then there’s the local resistance - because in Britain, there is no greater crime than suggesting a car might have to travel an additional 30 seconds to get to Waitrose.
The real tragedy is that the children in this report actually want change. They’re literally begging for safer streets, traffic-free cycle lanes, and a chance to ride their bikes without fear. But as long as decision-makers continue to prioritise parked cars over people’s lives, the Great British Bike Divide will remain exactly that. And, as ever, it’ll be women and girls left on the wrong side of it.
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Information correct at time of publication.
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