When You Stop Beating Around the Bush

So I decided to stop saying that “it’s not safe for women” when talking about things like isolated, wooded, enclosed multiuse paths (such as PATH 400 here in Metro Atlanta and many other paths around the USA that I encountered during my journey Round America with a Duck and other travels).

Just like changing language to say “people driving motor vehicles make the roads dangerous for people on bikes” (since the roads themselves are actually smooth and easy to ride, so saying it’s not safe to ride a bike on the roads is actually not accurate), I realized that there is nothing inherently dangerous about the wooded paths themselves (except, perhaps in bear country). I’ve decided, instead, to say the truth on the minds of at least 50% of the population every time we encounter one: “Its design makes it easy for men to attack women.”

I know the feeling I get in my gut that tells me I’m not safe, and the design features that contribute to that, and the fact that if anything were to happen to me I would be blamed for it (what were you doing out there alone?). I believe public space should be accessible for all and have be advocating for safer environments for women and girls for years, so this is nothing new. I’m just voicing it differently.

And here’s how that went the first time I said that to someone — a 70-year-old man I used to consider a friend. No one speaks to me the way he does in the email exchange below and continues having access to me as a friend, however. (I waited a solid month to share this — I think it is important for others to see how some people speak to or about women when we voice our lived experiences.)

He sent me an article about PATH 400’s extension to a nearby city. The rest of this blog post will be our actual email exchange, with nothing left out:

Me: The current design standards for PATH 400 make it easy for men to attack women so I don’t use it. 

Him: Yea.  And Dunwoody does such a good job that I have a broken back.  

Me: Exactly! That’s why protected bike lanes in plain view in populated areas are needed!

Him: Your response sounds gleeful and flippant to my near-death accident and broken back.  

You need to get out from under a rock.  

You’re lecturing the wrong person on design standards.  

There are great rail conversion and other off-road trails all over the country.

Silver Comet
Katy Trail

Virginia Creeper

C and O

Swamp Rabbit Trail

Dunwoody BR Trail

Portland, OR all around

Boulder all around

Washington DC 

Europe

Etc. Etc. Etc. 

Research AllTrails.  They’re numerous and successful.

You seem overly anxious, cynical, hysterical and ignorant of trails.  

You are wrong.  You are inexperienced in systems and facility analysis, design, and cost/benefit financial analysis which is a whole other defect with your opinions.

Fun fact: I have been bending over backwards trying to get protected bike lanes for years, re-committing to it after a person driving a motor vehicle hit him while he was riding his bike on a main road. Note I have also ridden on some of the paths he mentions (including all over Boulder while WWOOFing during Round America with a Duck) — and written about the concerns I had in blog posts (since 2006) and my books (since 2011). Finally, calling a woman “hysterical” and “wrong” for voicing her lived experiences is out of an antiquated playbook that we no longer tolerate.