Lights up: the women cyclists taking back the night in Manchester

On 9 November, for the second year running, a critical mass of women took to the streets of Manchester on their bikes for the incredible Lights Up event organised by the Rides for Women collective, this year doubling the turnout to more than 140 riders.

Described as some by a ‘disco on wheels’ the event had a carnival atmosphere and quite literally lit up the night. Riders had gone to huge efforts to decorate themselves and their bikes with lights, reflectors, glitter, flags, banners and loud colours.

Multiple sound systems were mounted on handlebars providing a sound clash of feel-good tunes, alongside chants such as ‘What do we want: LIGHTS; when do we want them: NOW’ kickstarted by local spoken-word artist Sumayra Ahmad. The atmosphere was electric (and not just because of the battery-powered fairy lights).

The joyous event, which formed part of the Pedal More in 24 calendar initiative supported by MCR Active and Manchester City Council due to the city being awarded the first European Capital of Cycling in 2024, followed a route from the bustling city centre through to the beautiful and historic Victoria Baths building for speeches and an afterparty.

The aim was to celebrate women taking up space on the streets on their bikes and to empower more women to keep riding through the darker months. But behind the joy and the celebration lies a more serious message and a call to action.

The route deliberately took on spaces that women might feel unsafe riding alone at night: unlit parks, backstreets and alleyways. The ride itself gave a feeling of safety in numbers, but these are spaces few women would feel safe venturing into alone at night.

Much of our low-traffic infrastructure in this country follows these sorts of routes that are poorly lit or have no lighting, which adversely impacts women feeling safe to ride over the winter months. This needs to change.

Having headed up the ride as front ride leader, I spoke to the two key ride organisers: Belinda Everett, Greater Manchester bicycle mayor and founder of Bee Pedal Ready CIC, and Anna Smith, community involvement officer at Station South, to find out more.

The idea behind the ride

Research has shown that one in three women stop cycling in winter or after dark. Bee agreed that the number of women cycling significantly falls during the darker winter months, saying “we wanted to bring awareness to this, the number one reason being not feeling safe at night while cycling”.

They wanted to highlight the underrepresentation of female cyclists on the streets of Greater Manchester and the challenges they face. “By gathering together and increasing visibility as an ‘illuminated, empowered collective’ the Lights Up ride aims to encourage women to be confident and assertive on their bikes year round.”

Anna added: “What we love so much about these mass rides is that they contain and hopefully convey an important message that inspires new women to take part and ride outside of their comfort zone, but our participants and volunteers have a really great time doing it as well. The critical mass of riders creates an empowering ownership of the roads, if only for an hour.”

How the ride went

Bee described the ride as “immense, empowering and most of all fun, everyone as a collective lit up the streets of Manchester, being visible and seen”.

Cycling UK supported the event by helping to provide pre-ride training for all the ride marshals, many of whom had completed our ride leader courses over the past couple of years. Cycling UK trustee Nadia Kerr also played an important role as backmarker on the ride.

Anna commented: “Wow, we really were overwhelmed – not just by the numbers of women who entertained our idea and gave up their Saturday afternoon to be with us, but for support from our volunteer ride marshals and partners who backed the event.”

She went on to say that the success of the ride was a testament to what collaborative efforts can achieve. “We are so excited to have made new connections this year and hope that movement in joint forces will only strengthen each time we plan one of these events.”

What the ride achieved

Bee said: “It achieved a strong sense of unity from the women-led cycling community and allies, that they want to ride at night feeling safe with the barriers they face being heard and changes to be made.”

Anna echoed Bee’s brilliant point, adding that: “It provided the ride marshals with brand new skills as well. The pre-event training was really apparent on the night and helped the ride run so smoothly. We really hope that the event has surfaced new friendships and buddied women up to cycle together through the winter.”

Lasting change

Both women agreed that much more needs to be done to create lasting change to empower more women to cycle at night in Manchester and beyond.

Bee emphasised the need to work with local councils and organisations, listen to cycling communities and implement much-needed changes throughout Greater Manchester in creating safer roads and spaces for all throughout the year: “So everyone can ride safely every day of the year!”

Anna called for more investment in cycling. “There are so many brilliant voluntary and grassroots groups who are providing such a great offer to the community,” she said.

“But everyone’s scrambling around for change and having to constantly rely on good will, limited resources and being massively overworked to make a difference. Decent financial backing to community cycling groups could change the city forever, and in the grand scheme of things, wouldn’t even cost that much.”