How can cities reduce their gender cycling gap? Organisers of the Vienna Woman Bike Ride believe it starts with improving visibility of female bikers.
Every September for ten years, people on the streets of Izmir, Turkey, stopped to wave and cheer as a large group of cyclists passed by. They were almost all women, many wearing eye-catching outfits, their handlebars festooned with floral arrangements. It was a spectacle, and that wasn’t by chance.
The Fancy Woman Bike Ride was organised by Pinar Pinzuti – a cycling activist – and Sema Gür – who only learned to ride a bicycle aged 38. Despite their different experiences, they both noticed that community bike rides were almost always organised and attended by men.
This imbalance is in keeping with a general trend: the ratio of male to female bike-riders is as high as four to one – a phenomenon called the cycling gender gap.
So the duo put together their own event and encouraged women to come along in their fanciest outfits.
Dressing up was intended to make participation fun and highly conspicuous, to show that the female cycling community can be just as visible as the boys and to push back against the dominance of vehicles on the city’s streets. In a move of defiance, the first tour of the Fancy Woman Bike Ride in 2013 took place on World Car Day.
By the time of the last one ten years later, it had become a worldwide movement with participants in more than 250 cities cycling in their finery on the same day.
But when the founders called time on the event, some people weren’t ready to give it up. Local chapters have been cropping up in various cities ever since.
Introducing the Vienna Women Bike Ride
Marion Brogyanyi was one of a team of strangers that found each other on social media who now arrange the four kilometre-long Vienna Woman Bike Ride in Austria’s capital city.
Its best turnout, on a sunny September day in 2023, saw a couple of hundred people take to the streets. As always, crowds on the sidelines clapped and waved, and the occasional onlooker joined the bikers’ ranks. On this occasion a band carried around on cargo bikes added to the energy. It was even covered by the national news.
The aim, Marion explains, is just the same as before: normalising female cycling in the city and provide positive role models to encourage other women and girls to get on their bikes more often.
If more women start to talk about biking, and more of them get interested, it creates a bigger network.
The Cycling Gender Gap
It would make sense for women to cycle more. Only 36% of Vienna’s residents own a car – the lowest rate of any city in Austria – and typically fewer women than men drive.
Plus, because women shoulder the majority of unpaid household and care work, they do a lot more “trip chaining” – hopping from place to place to take care of various tasks on a single outing, which cycling is highly suited to.
At least, it would be if infrastructure allowed. Vienna offers more than 1,600 km of cycle-accessible routes, and in 2002 even became one of the first cities to offer a free bike sharing scheme. But, our CityChanger explains, “There are no biking places [to park] most of the time.”
City planners are often men, which means street design serves male mobility purposes above all others – typically going directly from A to B in a car – and cyclists get overlooked. “I have a problem: where do I park my bike in front of the shops, in front of the supermarket, or if I go to the pharmacy? It’s always contributing to a very negative narrative about biking.”
Adding insult to injury, she says that Vienna has found room to instal roadside charging points for electric cars in recent years, but no space was set aside for bike racks.
Given the lack of convenient options, “Even for short distances, some [women] prefer [to take] the car.”
Safety Concerns
A place to park is only necessary if women are confident enough to go by bike in the first place. Poor urban planning decisions reverberate a lot deeper.
The convenience of cargo bikes, with their roomy compartments that support trip-chaining, are replacing the family car. But, although Austria introducing a subsidy for private individuals to buy one in 2025, Vienna’s narrow bike lanes rule out their use.
Even for traditional models, the short width of bike lanes exposes cyclists to passing traffic.
“I have a lot of friends who don’t feel safe to cycle on the street,” Marion says. “Why do they not feel safe? It’s because of aggressive behaviour in the street. Cars are driving too fast and too close.”
A study by RMIT University’s Centre for Urban Research found that reducing speed limits can make for a safer cycling experience, but much of Vienna already imposes a top speed of 30km per hour. There’s more to the problem.
I started to ask people I know here, of all ages, and most of them don’t want to bike because they’re scared.
Growing up in the small Austrian town of Sankt Pölten, her bike was the best mobility option Marion had to hand. But on moving to Vienna after a decade living in Asia, she was astounded by how stressful cycling had become – and dangerous: in the week before she spoke to CityChangers, two female cyclists had almost been killed by motorists – one of whom didn’t even have a diving license.
So, when they do bike, it’s quite usual to see people ride on pedestrian paths, Marion tells us.
Anger, Attitudes & Gendered Journeys
Not all the blame can be dumped on city planners. The worst intimidation female cyclists encounter is not from vehicles but the people behind the wheel.
“People are aggressive and in my experience it’s mainly men.”
Verbal and physical abuse, and frequently sexual harassment gets freely thrown around seemingly for no other reason than there being a woman moving independently through her city.
Men and traffic seem to be a combination for aggression and shouting and screaming and getting verbally violent against women in public spaces.
Fear of these attacks is a major factor preventing women from cycling and this is not unique to Vienna. Nor is it confined to the streets.
In 2024, the Vienna Woman Bike Ride coincided with Austrian elections, and the political vitriol on the right emboldened keyboard warriors to speak their (narrow) minds. “There were a lot of shit storms on social media,” Marion recalls. “It seems some people are provoked just by the fact it’s called a ‘Woman Bike Ride.’ I often see it connected with right-wing movement tendencies.”
It was no better in 2025. A Facebook post announcing the bike ride drew many comments ranging from blaming cyclists for causing the danger – how road safety can be achieved through mandatory license plates for cyclists, for example – to the downright racist and misogynistic – some even inciting sexual violence against the women involved in the ride. “It’s 80% men posting that,” Marion has observed, “so it seems there’s a layer of toxic masculinity going on.”
For those with the resilience – of which Marion thankfully seems to be one – there’s one way of dealing with trolls. “My advice is, just block it.” Although, if the post is on someone else’s account, she admits, this can be difficult to arrange.
Image credits: Instagram / Vienna Woman Bike Ride
A Demonstration of Solidarity
Marion is clear that they’re not making a political statement; the Vienna Woman Bike Ride is simply about promoting a safer, fairer environment for active mobility for all. At least in theory, increasing visibility has the potential to highlight and erode the cycling gender gap.
“I think we need more positive emotions around the whole topic of biking and not just the fear narrative,” Marion explains. “The best motivation is to be visible, that other women can see that it’s possible to move on the bike. This is what I really enjoy.”
But there are two sides to the bike tour: part fun event, part peaceful demonstration.
By Austrian law, demonstrations like this must be registered with the local authority – Landespolizeidirektion Wien – which assigns traffic police to supervise the event. This must be a reassuring presence for cyclists who are used to encountering aggression as they weave through the streets of Vienna.
Despite this official presence, the bike ride nevertheless still attracts unpleasant backlash from a chauvinist minority. “For me what’s interesting to see is the fact that a woman on their bike can provoke so many negative emotions,” says our CityChanger. Fragile male egos are evidently cross at being excluded – a position they are unfamiliar with.
If they took a moment to check, they’d quickly learn that men are in fact welcome on the bike tour – they’re just asked to show their solidarity by allowing women to cycle up front.
Making Cycling Accessible Again: Advice for Action
As the name suggests, there’s one difference between the Vienna Woman Bike Ride and its predecessor: it doesn’t bill itself as a fancy event.
The image change is an attempt to make cycling even more inclusive.
Marion tells us that low-income households don’t face the same barriers to cycling that they used to thanks to options for renting and borrowing bikes. Her own is second hand – and old! “I don’t want to spend too much money [on it],” she admits.
You don’t need to have the most expensive bike. You don’t need to have the most beautiful dress. You can just be whatever you are.
Just as anyone with a bike can join in the ride, so too can anyone set one up in their own city. “You need to find your own pack, but you don’t need to be an expert or special activist.”
A Growing Movement
Members of the Vienna team take a fluid approach to assigning tasks, from applying for permits to speaking to the press. Whoever has capacity volunteers, and roles can swap hands. “For me personally, it’s nice how women can co-create together, even if we don’t all know each other.”
As for the event in 2026, they’re hoping to revive something of the original Woman Bike Ride spirit by connecting international events again. They’ve put out a call to action, asking established and potential city bike rides to get in touch in order to plan together.
This also has potential to form a network or organisers willing to support the development of new chapters. Marion for one is already willing to provide startup advice for anyone who gets in touch – and she hopes more will join the movement ready for next year.
“Speak up for your rights and speak up for the spaces you want to be changed,” Marion asks of those who feel able. “I think it’s a great idea that women are supporting other women. Don’t be scared about that. You are never alone.”
For informal advice about setting up a women’s bike ride in your city, message the Vienna Woman Bike Ride team on Instagram.