All signs point to a big year for women on bikes [Bike Portland]

2012 is shaping up to be a big year for women on bikes.

Everywhere I turn I see signs of a growing recognition that there needs to be more women riding bikes in American cities and increasingly — both from the grassroots and on a national advocacy level — people are doing something about it. Given that women played a big role in cycling's popularity in the late 1890s and early 1900s, this is a resurgence that is long overdue.

A woman pedaling
in Waterfront Park
(Summer, 2011).

As someone who spends much of their day monitoring bike chatter on the Interwebs, reading bike magazines, and talking with sources from a variety of bike-oriented persepctives, I can report with absolute certainty that what we have going here is a bona fide trend (notice I say trend, not a fad).

I've noticed the emergence of new women's voices like Constance Winters of the popular and well-written Lovely Bicycle blog (based in Somerville, Massachusetts) and Trisha and Dottie from Let's Go Ride a Bike. On the West Coast there's Melissa Balmer, the rising advocate in Long Beach behind the Women on Bikes SoCal initiative. Last month her group launched the ambitiously named, "Let’s Double the Number of Women & Girls Riding Bikes" project.

[Keep reading at Bike Portland]

Editor's Note: Check out Yay Bikes! and Pedal Instead for bicycle advocacy organizations led by a great women!