A cycling session at Queen Mary homeless women's hostel (寄宿舍) in London starts.Eleven women discuss what they're hoping to achieve in today's session.Then they push their bikes to a basketball court to practise in an offroad environment.Supported by instructors, they practise riding by themselves.Sometimes these women feel a little tired because they take medicine, but they have all made up their mind for cycling training.
Last year Queen Mary approached Sustrans (a charity) to set up a cycling club for women.Many of them have low levels of fitness.All have survived challenging situations ranging from social isolation (孤立) to abusive (虐待的) relationships.The hostel staff, who are experienced mental health experts, try to develop cycling to build the women's confidence and give them access to other fields of society.The hostel is moving away from traditional treatment of mental health with the belief that cycling could be a really useful tool in helping the women live on their own.After the success of a 10week pilot project, the cycling club received financial support of ￡10,000 to continue the club.
In modern society, homelessness and mental health problems often go hand in hand.Studies have shown that physical activity, including walking and cycling, can be used to overcome and even prevent stress, depression and anxiety.It can be more effective than medical treatment.
Women, however, are less likely than men to take part in physical activity.Women in the UK make nearly three times fewer cycling journeys than men.Two main causes of this are traditional barriers — mostly because women still undertake most household tasks — and fear of judgment.The network of bike routes has been expanded yet the “build it and they will come” approach ignores the fact that not all people start from the same point.Social interventions (干预) are a useful way to achieve equality of access to cycling.
