October is Women's Bike Month. All month long, we'll be featuring women who bike Metro Boston -- sharing riding tips, favorite routes, and more!
Meet Jess! Jess has been riding with Bluebikes for just over two years. When she's not sharing bikes, she's racing them. We caught up with her to learn more about her passion for cycling.
Aside from working in medicine, I spend most of the rest of my time training or cycling competitively on a local team. Bluebikes (previously Hubway), were a big factor in getting me comfortable with riding bikes in the city. As a college student, Bluebikes were the most cost-efficient way of getting to class and around the city. Eventually, I fell in love with biking because it didn’t feel like a commute – it was incredibly stress relieving and I was having fun riding and beating traffic.
I have been riding since 2014. During summer break in college, I interned at Boston Bikes – part of City of Boston’s Transportation Department: we would often bike around the city to our field assignments using Bluebikes.
It has been great to see how bike share in Boston has evolved and expanded in these last few years. I am happy that Boston is embracing its biking and bike commuting culture.
Cycling in the US is a pretty male-dominated sport and it can be intimidating to pick it up. My advice to women is to stick with it because the benefits far outweigh the risks. I look back and wonder what my life would be like now if I had let my fears prevent me from trying something new and trying something that was more efficient, healthier and made me happier.
I would not know many of my current friends; I would not have rediscovered my sense of adventure, I definitely would not be as confident in other aspects of my life as I am now. Cycling has given me so much, and that is why it upsets me that there are still many barriers to women partaking in cycling.
I believe the best way to get started is to find a friend to go biking or commute to work with. Many local bike shops host women’s ride on the weekends and it’s a great way to meet people and have fun! Inevitably, you will gain confidence and those anxieties about riding on the road will be replaced with the sheer joy of feeling the wind against your face.
Some of my favorite stations are in Brookline on Commonwealth Ave -- along the BU campus. I used to carry groceries on a Bluebike - it was a lifesaver!
My favorite route is the bike path along the Esplanade. There is nothing more authentically Boston than riding along the Charles River and seeing the Boston city skyline.
I am excited for new stations in Allston and Brighton. Many of my friends live in this area and it will save me a lot of walking!
Celine Dion winked at me once.