Fear of cycling: Social, spatial, and temporal dimensions

Abstract Objective and perceived risk, danger, and safety concerns are often identified as barriers to taking up cycling. While a vast literature examines cycling safety, risk, and danger, little research examines relationships between fear and cycling, i.e. the emotional experience of risk, danger, and safety concerns. This paper addresses this research gap by exploring the fears reported by recent immigrants who are new cyclists in Toronto, Canada. Cyclists expressed many different types of fear; their fears were dynamic and possessed social, temporal, and spatial qualities. The two most frequent fears participants described were fear of injury and fear for personal safety. Fear of injury varied across the city and by time of day. It was also shaped by past cycling experiences, while appearing to attenuate with the accumulation of cycling skills. Fear of injury can also be social; and the primary focus herein is on how it can be gendered. For instance, gendered access to opportunities to cycle throughout the life course can shape cycling fear(s). Fear for personal safety was primarily expressed by women, was often shaped by past experiences of street harassment, and changed throughout the day, across the city, and was understood in relation to other places. Participants also described fears related to bicycle theft, getting lost, encountering mechanical problems, and getting in trouble with law enforcement.