Missing in Some States: Women Bike Commuters

I have ideas of my own, but it's also important to report what's out there from others, and with Heels on Wheels coming up, I think we should note this report from Treehugger about the dearth of female cyclists in Alabama and Mississippi (and other places):

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/10/5-states-where-women-barely-bike...

Here's how they start:

"The American Community Survey by the U.S. Census Bureau has been out for about two weeks, and if you can figure out how to look at the tables, it tells an interesting story about bike commuting. The Census doesn't collect bike use data per se, but it does periodically survey which type of vehicle or method people use to get to their jobs, and as biking is one of those methods, we can get a snapshot of how many dedicated bike commuters there are in the U.S. The good news? Dedicated bike commuting is grew about 38% in the last eight years. But if women are truly the indicator species for a successful bike infrastructure, lots of states aren't getting it right.

Women cyclists almost extinct in some states

"The most dismal U.S. states to bike in, if we count simply by the number of women declaring to the census that they use a bike to get to work, are Mississippi, Delaware, West Virginia, Alabama, and Arkansas. Puerto Rico, also surveyed on the question, was similarly quite dismal. Mississippi had just 209 declared female cycling commuters, Delaware just 210, while West Virginia had 326, Alabama had 431, and Arkansas had 461. Puerto Rico declared 318 female cyclists. While none of these states lost female cyclists since 2003 (in 2000 the data for cycling commuters is not sex separated), the gains are vanishingly small. .."

To which I will add, these are raw numbers. I'd like to get the number of cyclists per capita -- so that we can compare what (miniscule) percentage actually pedals to work. Stay tuned!

[Henry Slack has a history of talking about himself in the 3rd person. Pay no attention!]