By Daniel Rogers
Three students from Ashbourne Community College, Aoife White, Laura Bolster and Mollie White, were celebrated recently for their work on the #andshecycles Ambassador Programme by receiving the Meath Community Safety Award from An Garda Siochána.
This award programme celebrated 23 students from nine secondary schools who promoted the #andshecycles Ambassadors programme for the 2020/2021 academic school year.
The number of girls who cycle to school in Ireland remains quite low with one girl out of every 250 students using a bike as their main mode of transport. Its aim was to show that cycling isn’t just a “boy’s thing” but in their research they found that cycling is a social practise only the norm for boys to engage in and not so much for girls.
With the work from these 23 young women, however, they hope to make cycling the norm for girls in the future. Their study also found that women would need a certain amount of athleticism, wouldn’t be as comfortable cycling as they feel there is a level of danger from cycling unfriendly roads and being left subject to judgement.
Meath South East News 