Women’s Safety: Walking, Wheeling, Cycling and Running Debate
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Kevin Bonavia
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Women’s Safety: Walking, Wheeling, Cycling and Running
Kevin Bonavia Excerpts(1 day, 9 hours ago)
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Amanda Hack (North West Leicestershire) (Lab)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Jardine. I thank the hon. Member for Lowestoft (Jess Asato) for giving us the opportunity to speak in such an important debate for our constituents, but many of us in the room will also be speaking from personal experience and for those people who are close to us.
Walking, wheeling, cycling and running are sold to us as sports that are easily accessible, particularly walking and running because there are no monthly fees and many will have the equipment accessible at home—pop your shoes on and off you go—but for women it is nowhere near as accessible as it should be. We hear the phrase, “Everyone has the same 24 hours” a lot, particularly on social media, trying to shame people for not going for a run, going to the gym or choosing to bike to work instead of taking the bus. I know many women who actively choose not to exercise at night because they feel unsafe; suddenly, those 24 hours are limited to when it is light outside. If someone works in an office or during the winter, the hours available to them to go for a run or a cycle can feel even more restricted.
Kevin Bonavia (Stevenage) (Lab)
In my constituency we have one of the best cycling networks in the UK. However, the lighting is absolutely shocking in some places, because over the years Hertfordshire county council has changed it to LED lighting. Does my hon. Friend agree that we need a whole-Government approach to this at all levels, and that we should encourage local councils to think about that when they are designing their lighting systems?
Amanda Hack
My hon. Friend makes an incredibly important point. Some 58% of women say that their cycle journeys are limited because of safety concerns and the infrastructure provided. As somebody who has run fairly regularly for a number of years, being hassled has sadly been a daytime as well as a night-time experience.