Two weeks ago, an article was published in The New York Times exploring the gender imbalance of bike commuters in New York. Women were afraid to bike, the article said, because they didn’t want to get sweaty, wear spandex or worse, were too afraid of their surroundings. This week I tried biking to work. Here’s what I found made me feel the most safe, and as a result, gave me the confidence to continue biking after this experiment.
My office was supportive of my decision to bike and my experiences with being uber-safe and secure on my bike even convinced a few others to try it. You can’t trust traffic or other drivers to watch out for you so feeling confident on my bike was the key to my success. Did my dress ride/fly up a few days? Yup! Did I get hot and sweaty? Yes. Did I look and feel amazing on my bike? Heck yes. And would I do it everyday if I could? Of course! Feeling like I accomplished something first thing in the morning set the intention for the rest of my day. I was ready to go and conquer. After I hit up the water cooler, of course.
