Falmouth Glow Ride campaign calls for safer cycling for women
It aims to highlight the need for safer and more inclusive cycling infrastructure for women.
A campaigner in Falmouth is calling for safer streets and better cycling infrastructure for women, ahead of an illuminated bike ride through the town.
The Glow Ride, organised by the Falmouth and Penryn Walking and Cycling Campaign, aims to highlight the need for safer and more inclusive cycling infrastructure for women.
It's part of Cycling UK's national My Ride, Our Right campaign, which highlights how intimidating driver behaviour, inadequate cycling infrastructure and concerns about personal safety can discourage women from cycling, particularly during darker evenings.
Riders have been asked to decorate their bikes with fairy lights and wear something bright for the route through town and along the seafront.
Dean Evans, who founded the Falmouth and Penryn Walking and Cycling Campaign and is also a Cornwall councillor for Penryn and a Falmouth town councillor, said the ride was designed to highlight the issue in a way that brings people together.
"The Glow Ride is an initiative started by Cycling UK, the major cycling charity in the UK, and it is to highlight the urgent need for safer and more inclusive cycling infrastructure for women," he said.
"Women are less likely to cycle because they don't feel safe on the road and particularly at night. Quite often cycle paths are not well lit even where they exist, so women find it far more difficult even than men to cycle, especially at night."
Mr Evans said the ride itself was focused on infrastructure rather than other safety concerns, but added that some young women had told him they felt their movements were restricted after dark.
"I've directly had this problem addressed to me by a young woman," he said, "when they go out, they feel that there is a curfew on young women, that they can't stay out as late as a young man would because they don't feel safe walking home."
He said the cycle ride itself was "a fun way of actually raising the issue with members of the public," and was open to everybody, including families.
"We put fairy lights on our bikes and it's a short ride around the town, having a bit of fun and highlighting this very serious issue," he said.
Mr Evans, who is a member of the Falmouth Wheelers Cycling Club, said he would like to see slower traffic speeds and better facilities for cyclists more widely.
"We just want to encourage people to cycle and highlight the fact that they need to feel safe when they do so," he said.
The ride sets off from The Moor at 7pm.