I discovered yet another aspect of our fair city; that after work the Esplanade is filled with men who ride their bikes to go relax and read a book. Nearly every bench was occupied this way. On the other hand I didn't see a single female cyclist. Anyone care to speculate on the social forces at work?
7 comments:
It could be completely coincidental and a few guys out enjoying a nice day. Or, it could be a gay cruising thing.
Love the blog by the way.
bikes, trees and men with books. mmh I'd be hangin out there too :)
love the bench photo!
I can't explain the lack of women... but i find what the guys are doing.... what I sometimes want. Alone time. Space. Reflection. Peaceful decompression.
Hm, statistically for some reason, women ridership has always been low[er]. Of course there are exceptions (for cities like...in Denmark it's going to be pretty much equal), but anywhere else stats say women ride less. And, people speculate it is because women are more cautious and the stigma that riding is dangerous drives many women away. It reminds me of this other statistic I read about women buying cars; that they are more likely to look at its safety features than men are. Wonder if that's still true...anyway, although I'm one of the female kind :P I can't really say why ridership would be low because I LOVE riding my bike around town.
I agree that it was probably coincidental, but it was very striking in the moment. I grew tired of taking photos of men reading on benches and decided to only show you a few, but I'd estimate there were more than 20 benches occupied this way.
I did get a nice photo of a lady on a bench reading, but she was over in the park by my garden. The ladies are out, they seem to gravitate to Comm Ave. while the men take the Esplanade. Don't know why!
I would say that women do not want to sit on a bench alone, because some guy will come up and try and talk to them...while they just wanted to sit and read, by the water.
Mike, I think you called it. The ladies I see reading on benches are in more out-of-the-way places, where she's more likely to rest undisturbed.
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