Women Who Bike - Emira Mears
Women currently account for only 28% of the region's bicycle trips. To help provide a clearer picture of the reasons why women choose to cycle or not to cycle, we connected with Emira Mears, partner at Raised Eyebrow Web Studio. Emira answered our recent call for women to speak about cycling.
Emira's Ride:
My bike is a hybrid 21 speed with a step-through/girl frame. I searched high and low for a larger girl bike frame about 7 years ago when I bought the bike, as I'm tallish (5'8") but I regularly wear skirts/dresses when I cycle so having a step-through frame was a big must have for me. At the time they were harder to find, but with the explosion of Dutch bikes and cruisers they're easier to come by now. The bike is a
Miele, but all branding has been stripped from it as my partner treated me to a custom paint job whereby he stripped the bike and painted it all (racks, fenders etc) in a lovely off-white/ivory colour. I adore it. I've recently acquired a very stylish and super practical
BoBike front-mount children's bike seat for my 18 month old daughter to ride in, which I use for daycare pick-up/drop-offs. It matches my bike, which I secretly love, but is also very easy to attach/remove so that I'm not carrying around extra gear when she's not out for a ride with me.
The best parts:
I love the pace of cycling and getting to be on residential streets. I typically use my bike for commuting and my options are typically bike or bus, so getting to stay off busy commercial streets and checkout people's gardens and travel through neighbourhoods on my commute is a really great way to decompress at the end of my work day. I also love the exercise/oxygen given that I spend my days mostly in meetings or at my computer being pretty stationary. Since having my daughter last year, I also have to admit I love the extended alone time that cycle commuting gives me, while also allowing me to sneak in some exercise. That said, cycling with my daughter is fantastic. She loves being on the front of the bike and we talk about everything we see, from people walking dogs to the parks we pass by.
Could do without:
Well traffic mainly and in particular I'm still shocked by how many people are talking on phones and not paying attention. I get to ride mostly on the Adanac bike path and then over the excellent new bike paths on the viaduct for my commute, but when I have to veer off for the few blocks it takes to get to my office I regularly have close calls with people not paying attention while driving. When my daughter is also on my bike I get really upset about that of course. I could also do without the Adanac hill, but then I wouldn't really be getting my exercise ;)
Emira's take on bike culture in Vancouver:
I've really seen it evolve over the 17 or 18 years I've lived here. At first it was really a spandex and hardcore cyclist crowd on the bike paths which was a bit new to me coming even just from Victoria where there was a lot more "regular folks on a bike" culture. I always felt like I really stuck out wearing regular clothes -- including often dresses and heels -- on my bike, but that's much less the case now. I've even noticed in the year that I wasn't commuting or biking as much after my daughter was born that there's been a big shift towards more everyday people on the bike routes and I'm sure the separated bike lanes have had a lot to do with that. I also admit I love the
critical mass rides, even though I often only make it to one or two a year, as I just love the feeling of being in a big group of cyclists. It reminds me a lot of cycling in Amsterdam or Denmark when I've been visiting there, where you actually feel like you're a significant part of traffic rather than an "alternative" means of getting around.
What would it take to get Emira to bike more:
Is nicer weather too cheeky an answer, particularly this summer? I've always been a bit of a fair weather cycle commuter -- I typically go back to the bus come November and pull the bike out again come April for regular commuting -- but with my daughter that's even more the case. It's one thing to bring a change of clothes for myself at work, it's another to have to pack along my work stuff, her daycare stuff and changes of clothes for both of us. That said, I am very blessed to have a bike room at my office as well as safe storage options for her bike seat, helmet etc. all set up at her daycare making the lugging of goods less of a burden. I am also really blessed, as I already mentioned, to live just off a bike route that takes me from home to her daycare and then to work with only a few blocks of commuting off route. I absolutely love the separated lanes and can see more of them -- like for example something that went from the east side of town to the west, rather than just downtown, making me more inclined to cycle with her outside of our commuting times.
Can you relate to Emira's experience of cycling? Or you in the heels and dress camp when it comes to cycling, do you belong to the hardcore spandex club, or do you avoid cycling altogether?