news, local-news, cycling in canberra, where to cycle in canberra, cycling paths canberra, pedal power, pedal power act, ian ross pedal power, environment commissioner kate auty, arnagretta hunter

Nicola Todd has a theory about cycling. "Wind makes me stronger, rain makes me tougher and the two together make me really badass," the Canberra mother said. "And you get so much cred when you get to work because they're just like, 'Woah! Check you out'." A self-professed "fan of the great indoors", Ms Todd describes her decision to start cycling as the best thing she has done for herself. But Canberra needs more women like Ms Todd, who lives in Curtin. While men cycle to work from every established suburb in the ACT, according to new analysis of the most recent Census by cycling advocacy group Pedal Power, there are 19 established Canberra suburbs in which no women report riding to work. What's more, there is no ACT suburb in which the number of female cycling commuters exceeds the male number. For every two men who cycle to work, only one woman will do the same. Ms Todd's initial motivation for cycling was to avoid paying $60 a day to park her car while at work. Now, the accountant is taking a year off work and doesn't need to commute to the office, but she has enjoyed the benefits of getting on a bike so much she is busily working on a plan to pass her newfound love of cycling on to her 14-year-old twin children. She is riding around with her kids' schoolbags in a trailer behind her bike as part of a training regime she hopes will stand her in good stead when she and her teenagers start cycling about 15 kilometres home from school together after the holidays. "They'll have no excuse not to ride home on bikes, because I'm ahead with 20 kilos of trailer and schoolbags," Ms Todd laughed. "[Getting into cycling] is just the best thing I've ever done. Like so many women, I thought I could never do it - that I wasn't badass enough. But the paths are fantastic and everyone's friendly." She said the great thing about cycling, for anyone thinking about taking it up, was that you could go at your own pace and find a level that was comfortable for you. While Ms Todd originally took up cycling to avoid parking fees, fellow Canberra mother Mia Ching had a different motivation. Less than a year ago, her daughter Poppy "suddenly got on her pedal bike, with no training wheels, at three-and-a-half, and started whizzing around". Ms Ching, then "an avid non-cyclist", was struggling to keep up and was particularly stressed after "wobbling along" down Limestone Avenue on the way to Poppy's music lessons in Ainslie. She didn't want to tell Poppy she couldn't ride her bike, but grappled with not feeling like a bike rider herself. "I'd sort of said, 'I wish I could like riding my bike the way you like riding your bike and the way Dad likes riding his bike'," Ms Ching said. "Poppy said, 'Well, you could. You just need to ride your bike more'. "That was an ethic I'd really tried to instill in her, that if you practice hard at something you're not good at, you get better. So I just started practicing riding my bike." Little Poppy's words of wisdom rang true, and soon Ms Ching started to enjoy riding. Now, the pair go for a bike ride together at least four days a week, and the car is no longer needed for a trip to the shops. "It's not a huge transformation. I'm not a cycle for miles sort of person and I don't like hills," Ms Ching said. "But it is entirely possible to go from an avid non-cyclist to being someone who is probably a moderate user of their bike, within a year. "I didn't want [Poppy] to think women didn't cycle and it was just for Dad. "Really, it's about me making sure that she knows women are able to be active and do exercise, even though my natural disposition is probably to sit inside reading a book and drinking a cup of tea." University student Ulrika Li was exposed to cycling much earlier in life by her parents, and uses her bike to get to and from classes. "Women who are working or studying might think they are really busy and don't have time, but you can balance work or study with exercise," Ms Li said, pointing out that cycling could be a form of transport to get to where you needed to be, and it just so happened to double as exercise. Her view is shared by cardiologist Arnagretta Hunter, who has cycled to work in Canberra for four of her five years living here. "Active transport is just easy exercise, and we know from a health perspective that if you can get 20 or 30 minutes a day of just being a little bit more active, there are significant health benefits," Dr Hunter said. "Exercise doesn't have to be going to the gym and wearing lycra. It can be really straightforward to access. "I often don't find the time to do other exercise, so 20 minutes [on a bike] each way to work is a great way to get a little bit of zen time. I think it's relaxing and it's also good for health and wellbeing." She said the barriers that might stop women cycling to work included distance and physical impediments like hills, as well as having to think about changing clothes or showering once you arrived at work. "Young doctors have said to me that they find it's useful that I ride to work," she said. "They see that you can do it and turn up on a ward round looking half-respectable and like you might be a doctor, at least some of the time." One of the ways Dr Hunter suggested getting around the barriers of hills and distance was to ride an electric bike. ACT Commissioner for Sustainability and the Environment Kate Auty does just that. She has cycled to work since being appointed to the role in 2016, firstly on an old Treadly bike and for the last 18 months on an electric bike. Dr Auty said electric bikes made riding easy for people of all ages and abilities. "It gets me out of a vehicle, so it reduces my environmental footprint, and it improves my health," she said. "You can do this at any age and you can do it in any circumstances. I'm 64, for instance. "I went out and bought myself an eBike, and I think people need to understand that they're not poison. They are convenient and we should be encouraging them." RELATED NEWS Dr Auty said cycling could be a social activity and the health benefits were clear. She hadn't had a major cold, cough or flu at all this year. "I put it down to riding my bike," she said. Pedal Power ACT chief executive Ian Ross said the organisation wanted to overcome the gender disparity among cyclists in Canberra. The organisation is keen for women to cycle to give cycling to work a go on Wednesday, October 16, which is National Ride2Work Day. Pedal Power also has a female cycling ambassador campaign, featuring the women in this article. "Our ambassadors are a wonderful group of Canberra women who represent some of the many benefits of cycling: health, environment, social, family, financial and lifestyle," Mr Ross said. "What we want to tell the women of Canberra is you don't need to be an athlete, you don't need to throw away the car. "But if you swap out the car for a bike for a trip or two a week, you will reap the rewards of cycling, and so will our environment and community. "Our advice is to choose a simple first step: ride to your local shops, or ride with your kids to school sometimes, or ride to your local cafe. "Give it a go, take that step. You never know what you'll find."

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