Few people cycle in Scarborough — and of those, says a new report, “very few are women.”

The Centre for Active Transportation, who released the study, Building Bike Culture Beyond Downtown, on Jan. 17, says nearly half the area’s female residents — 46 per cent — don’t have a driver’s licence; and in many Scarborough neighbourhoods, more than 25 per cent of households don’t own a car, and many have poor access to public transit.

So why aren’t more Scarborough women venturing out on two wheels?

Women are more concerned about safety, and in Scarborough — where there’s little separation from traffic — they’re less likely to be the “strong and fearless cyclists” seen on major suburban roads, says Trudy Ledsham, the report’s lead researcher.

“For women to bike, they require more security,” she said.

Oakridge resident and cyclist Louise Gilmour said many people “are just naturally intimidated riding next to cars,” and have expressed to Gilmour how “daring” she is. “The majority of people who express that thought are women,” she said.

In November 2017, a car passed too close and hit her at an intersection on the Danforth. She sustained an ankle sprain, and got mirrors for her bike.

“It did make me really nervous about the sound of cars coming up behind me. If I’m ever hit again, I will stop cycling in traffic,” she said.

Physical and mental barriers remain to cycling around Scarborough, one of the biggest being Hwy. 401.

Then there are politicians cyclists see as, at best, indifferent.

Multi-use trails such as The Meadoway — an $85-million route across Scarborough to the Don Valley — are coming together across hydro corridors, but plans to extend Toronto’s network of bike lanes to the suburbs often seem perpetually stalled.

Data suggests where bike lanes need to go, but getting them remains a real challenge requiring “an enormous level of commitment” from interested councillors, said Jared Kolb of Cycle Toronto.

Suburban cycling infrastructure “became a third rail” by the time bike lanes were built on Pharmacy Ave., said Kolb, recalling that Michelle Holland-Berardinetti ran for councillor promising to tear them out, and did so in 2011.

Today, Kolb added, suburban councillors include “a lot of people who understand the best way to get re-elected is to do nothing.”

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Jennifer McKelvie, a new Scarborough councillor with a seat on the city’s Infrastructure and Environment Committee, said that she’s determined to build bike lanes wherever roadways are set to expand, such as Port Union Road in her ward.

She’s also committed, she said, to creating a separated cycling lane along Scarborough’s waterfront trail, from Pickering to East Point Park.