Nine thousand voices for safer cycling

On Tuesday 19 January, our 'Motion for Women' petition, which attracted nine thousand signatures of support from people across the UK, was delivered - by bike naturally - to the House of Commons and formally presented to Sadiq Khan, the Minister for Transport. 

Meanwhile in Cardiff, Rosemary Butler, the National Assembly for Wales' Deputy Presiding Officer, who learned to cycle last year with help from Sustrans Cymru, received the petition on the steps of The Senedd.  Whilst Scotland's Transport Minister, Stewart Stevenson, accepted the petition outside Scottish Government in Edinburgh.

At all three governments, we made a statement by asking local women, who want to feel safe enough to make more everyday journeys by bike, to hand over the petition.

Terry Cassels, a Sustrans bike belle in Essex who has been blogging, reviewing women's cycling equipment and shared her cycling experiences on our bike belles website, helped present the petition at Westminster: 'It was incredibly exciting to visit the House of Commons, where so many important decisions and so much history is made, and be able to represent the 9,000 signatories who all want a safer space to cycle in. 

'The Minister seemed genuinely interested in what we were asking for and promised to consider it seriously.  It's a really positive step in working towards a more cycle-friendly nation.' 

The petition - backed by organisations including Mind, the National Federation of Women's Institutes, the Townswomen's Guilds, Women in Rural Enterprise and Zest magazine - was launched in September in response to research from Sustrans that showed a staggering 79 per cent of women in Britain never cycle at all.  The most common reason women gave for not cycling was not feeling safe enough, and 67 per cent of women believe that cycle lanes entirely separated from other traffic would encourage more women to cycle.

Thanks to all who signed and circulated the petition.  We will keep you informed on how the governments respond.