If we want to get women riding bikes, this has to change.

I’d love to dust off my desperately underutilised bike and cycle to work. The idea of flying past morning traffic, getting incidental exercise, and looking as stylish as a Dane appeals to me.

Lord mayor Sally Capp and transport portfolio chair
 Nic Frances-Gilley launching the council's cycling strategy.

I am sure many women feel the same way – so why do bike lanes in Melbourne seem to be the exclusive domain of middle-aged men in lycra?

Sadly, for most of inner Melbourne, cycling is less Euro chic and more action thriller. Riding a bike means dodging cars pulling over on one side while watching for doors opening on the other.

Bike lanes are more suggestion than protection, with cyclists vulnerable to cars constantly crossing their route. With women making up fewer than one in five cyclists in Victoria, it seems other women feel as unsafe as I do biking on the road.

Read the opinion piece in The Age by Tori Berquist - “If we want to get women riding bikes, this has to change.”