'Our plan wasn't to be rowdy or reckless, we were just taking up some space' - the women reclaiming night rides, reminding us all of the safety issues female cyclists face

Are you a night-time cyclist? Someone who likes it when the roads are quieter, only the narrow stretch of road illuminated in front of you, rear lights flickering? If this sounds like a bit of you, I’ll bet you're not a woman. And this isn’t because women don’t want to cycle at night - it’s because, for many of us, it’s much less safe.

Everyone has their own go-to protection methods. As girls, we’re taught to carry our keys poking out of our fists when walking home, to talk to someone on the phone, to stick to busy, well-lit roads - to avoid making eye contact with passers by. A 2022 YouGov poll found that 66% of women felt unsafe walking home at night, with another 20% not venturing out at night for safety reasons. And, sadly, the danger extends to night-time rides, too.

In Sheffield, Chella Quint dodges quiet roads that would get her home quicker, to instead weave a path past familiar pubs (with friendly bouncers) and bustling streets. Claire Sharpe was cycling the Bristol to Bath path recently, and a teenager on an electric bike rammed her rear wheel: “it was just so reckless and unnecessary - I wonder if he’d have done that to a bloke.”

“I’ve never let the dark stop me,” Sarah Round said. And neither do Sharpe and Quint, instead finding ways to work around the dark, taking different - sometimes less safe - routes home to avoid unlit cycle paths, dressing to the nines in hi-vis and lights.

And last week, community groups set off on coordinated bike rides, draped in glow sticks and lights, to raise awareness of these issues, and to reclaim the night-time ride for women and marginalised people. This was the Glow Ride, co-ordinated by Cycling UK.

“It looked like something between a rave on wheels or a parade of Christmas decorations,” Quint told Cycling Weekly of Sheffield Cycling 4 All’s ride around the city. “There was an excellent playlist of old-school floor fillers and recent pop songs. The ride itself was joyful and steady - you could chat with people and compliment their bikes.” Quint even had the chance to thank their local MP about the new cycle hangers they’d help install across the city.

In Birmingham, Round and the Bicycle Adventure Club used local cycle paths and parks to weave a 10km route through the city. “One lady rode with her son," Round said. "He was only five and pedalled most of the way himself before mum turned his bike into a trailer to help him. Sharing a love of cycling is instant camaraderie and a brilliant starting point for friendships.”

The Glow Ride was a feast for the senses in Bristol, as Sharpe’s cycle group, All Terre hooked up with the city's rich array of community bike groups all kitted out in bright lights and colours. “Our plan wasn't to be rowdy or reckless, we were just taking up some space and moving through the city in a safe but visible way,” she said.

“Rather hilariously, whilst riding to highlight the lack of safe infrastructure, or just general feeling safe at night time, a car did block the entrance to one of the cycle paths, so we couldn't use it,” Sharpe laughed. Though it is an irony Quint shared, too.

“Unfortunately, just after the ride, a woman we’d met earlier came back upset,” Quint explained. “Some teens had harassed her just as she’d set off for home (name-calling, following). She didn’t feel safe, so we regrouped and formed a little ‘bike bus’ to see everyone home.”

“I think it's important to get women together," Sharpe said. "It's the same as just blokes riding together, which is the way it's been for a long time, but just a bit different. The conversation tracks different. And yeah, it's just a nice space to be in.”

“Cycling with other women normalises different paces, body types, abilities, and cycles," Quint continued. "But it also supports anyone who doesn’t fit the “slim guys in lycra” image of cyclists - whether they’re disabled, or people of size, or queer.”

Round is already planning more group night rides to come, "to get people out cycling whatever the light conditions."

But the Glow Ride has also highlighted something Quint has long been thinking. “We need protected, continuous lanes with proper night-time lighting and side-road priority,” they said. Their list of necessary improvements is long, some tangible and urgent (wider cycling parking bays and lanes for adaptive bikes, like Quint’s) and some about slower-paced cultural change - bikes being encouraged into family life as they are in the Netherlands, normalising cycling for those with additional physical needs, and providing the necessary education, technology and infrastructure to support it.

“The Glow Ride proves demand. When you light the city properly - literally and figuratively - people of all abilities show up," they said.

"That is what will sustain cycling.”