What started with a small bike ride among friends, evolved into a big movement. The Fancy Women Bike Ride provides the occasion to give more visibility to women in the society and to demand cycle safe cities.
On September 22nd, Izmir, Istanbul, Athens, Milan, Bern, Cologne, Nicosia, Berlin, London, Vancouver, Washington DC, San Jose, and many other cities will stage the most colourful, fantastic and empowering women’s parade in the world: the Fancy Women Bike Ride (Suslu Kad?nlar Bisiklet Turu).
Anyone who participates is expected to:
- Smile
- Greet other people,
- Pose to the photographers
“The fancy women bike ride is a call to all those women who just want to be visible on the streets, in the city, in society”, says Pinar Pinzuti from Milan, the international coordinator of the Fancy Women Bike Ride.
What started with a small bike ride among friends, evolved into a big movement. The Fancy Women Bike Ride provides the occasion to give more visibility to women in the society and to demand cycle safe cities.
The Fancy Women Bike Ride came to life in 2013 thanks to Sema Gur, who hoped to challenge the male-dominated world of cycling in Turkey. Sema, a teacher living in Izmir, created a Facebook event and invited her friends to come together for a bike ride one Sunday afternoon. It was not a coincidence that it was on the same day as the World Car Free Day, during the EU’s “Mobility Week”. Since then the Fancy Women Bike Ride takes place every year in late September.
In the following year of the first edition the Fancy Women Bike Ride already expanded in more than ten cities. Volunteers organized women bike rides at the same day and same time. In 2018 Fancy Women Bike Ride has taken place for the 6th time in a row and more than 50.000 women joined the event in 70 cities in all over Turkey and Europe.
In 2019 Women Gather Up in 120 Cities
“The women’s bike ride is successful because the event welcomes everyone, the message is clear and it is organized by brave and independent women.” says Pinar Pinzuti.
The event is organized by women who are eager to promote cycling to their peers. Hand-in-hand with the organization of the ride they also ask local authorities to increase safety on roads, create urban cycling infrastructure and plan bike-friendly services. Although the event itself is once a year, the women’s peer-to-peer initiatives last all year around. Women organize cycling courses in their communities, group rides for the weekends, cycling events for families with small children.
The Fancy Women Bike Ride is the opportunity to experience the streets where colourful women on bikes replace stinky and cold cars. And if we can do it once a year, why can’t we do it every day?
Vicky is the co-founder of TravelDailyNews Media Network where she is the Editor-in Chief. She is also responsible for the daily operation and the financial policy. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Tourism Business Administration from the Technical University of Athens and a Master in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Wales.
She has many years of both academic and industrial experience within the travel industry. She has written/edited numerous articles in various tourism magazines.
