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Comment by Rebelgecko | Hacker News Reader

I think it's hard to say things are fine when there's still huge gender disparities, in DC area it's something like 2:1

This might have been true during WW II when flat feet and myopia did not exempt men from conscription. It has not, that I know of, been true any time in the last seventy years. I moved to the area forty-five years ago. This was not because I supposed that the 5:1 ratio (which some mentioned) would make women overlook my mediocre looks, shabby clothes, and so-so hygiene; but the chance it could be true seemed like a bonus.

What does gender have to do with anything in this discussion?

> in DC area it's something like 2:1

That's not true.

33% of bike trips in the Washington area are by women. Assuming non-binary people are around 1% of trips, that puts men at 66%, giving an exact 2:1 ratio

Source: https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/24356/dot_24356_DS1.pdf?

And IMO you can't call a mode of transportation "fine" when large swathes of the population don't feel safe or comfortable using it (this comes up a lot when I talk to female friends about bus/metro usage too)

Thank you for clarifying, I get what you mean now.

That study is over a decade old though. And I would think that there's too many confounding variables at play there. IMO the biggest confounder is "society issues" that make women feel less safe in general in public spaces. In my local neck of the US, I pretty much never see solo women eating outside at night, vs solo men and mixed groups.

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