In Case You Missed It: There’s a $4,000 Match Grant for WABA’s Women & Bicycles Program!

Following an incredibly fun Hains Point century ride on Saturday, we were able to announce that, thanks a generous program supporter, donations to the WABA Women & Bicycles program through the end of the year will be matched up to a total of $4,000. This means that, in the next five days, we need your contribution. You can donate to the program, which will aim to get more D.C.-area women on bikes, here. Why is getting more women on bikes a critical cause?

• In 2012, women represented just 22.7 percent of cyclists on the road in D.C. According to DDOT, that’s a slight drop since 2011.
• In Women on Wheels, April Streeter writes, “New bike commuters are overwhelmingly male. Data reviewed by researchers John Pucher and Ralph Buehler show that almost all of the recent growth in cycling in the united states recently can be attributed to men between 25 and 64 years old. Pucher and Buehler found that cycling rates are just holding steady for women, and have fallen sharply for children.”
• Our women’s bicycling forum identified three top barriers for getting women on bikes: safety (fear, safety concerns, inexperience/confidence, harassment), logistics (facilities, time commitment, weather, gear, money), and perception (misconceptions, double standards, and professionalism).

How is WABA going to fix these problems through the Women & Bicycles program?

• Ten “Roll Models” will be selected to mentor women in their friend, family, church, and work groups
• Roll Models and mentees will be invited to a series of bike dinner parties, group rides, and workshops that will mix practical advice and conversation about how to incorporate cycling into one’s lifestyle with socializing and low-key hanging out.
• Non-participants will be kept abreast of the program, so they’ll learn more about the issues facing women on bikes and be inclined to encourage their friends and family to bike, regardless of gender.

We don’t want to sit around and talk about what’s discouraging women from biking, so we’ve created a program centered on peer-to-peer encouragement, information, and experience through events. Your support will ensure that we can make the dinner parties, group rides, and workshops that we’ve planned out happen successfully, and that we can reach as many women as possible. If you contribute before the end of the year, the $4,000 match grant will make your money stretch even further. At 9:30 a.m. today, $705 had been donated to the Women & Bicycles program. Donate now and your dollars are worth double.