Women's safety while walking, wheeling, cycling and running

Background

Studies have found that some women feel unsafe whilst exercising in public spaces.

Running

According to a 2025 statistical report by online sports retailer Sports Shoes, in the 12 months leading to February 2025, 48% of women in the UK felt unsafe whilst running (compared to 36% of men).

The report found that 70% of women had experienced an “intimidating incident” whilst running, including:

• being stared at (23%),
• being followed (22%), and
• being beeped at from a car (21%).

Similarly, a study by the University of Manchester published in February 2024 found that 82% of women surveyed who run regularly in Greater Manchester and Merseyside felt concerned for their safety whilst running. The study also found that 68% of women surveyed had experienced harassment whilst running, including being wolf-whistled at, followed and having things thrown at them.

Where women do go running, threats to their safety lead to them taking extra precautions. For example, Sport Shoes’ study found that 67% of women take care to wear non-revealing clothes on runs, and 61% will only run on well-lit streets.

In 2025, Surrey Police launched its Jog On campaign, aiming to tackle harassment of female runners. This involves female plain-clothed officers jogging in key locations, with support crews nearby should they receive harassment like catcalling.

Cycling

According to a report published by Cycling UK, intimidating behaviour from drivers, poor infrastructure and fears over safety are deterring more women in the UK from cycling compared with men. According to the report:

• 58% of women said that their cycle journeys are limited by safety concerns and a lack of suitable infrastructure,
• 36% of women said that roads aren’t safe enough to cycle on, and
• 23% of women said that a lack of dedicated cycle routes is a barrier to them cycling.

Cycling UK’s ‘My ride. Our right’ campaign is calling for changes including better networks (separated from traffic), the inclusion of women’s voices in the planning and design of routes, and better promotion of the Highway Code to foster respect on the roads.

Similarly, a report published by the London Cycling Campaign Women’s Network in 2024 (PDF), found that women cycling in London face “frequent harassment, intimidation and abuse”:

• 93% of respondents said that drivers had used their vehicle to intimidate them,
• nine out of ten respondents said that they had experienced verbal abuse and aggression whilst cycling, and
• more than one in five respondents said they had given up cycling after one of these incidents.

The report also found that nine out of ten women would start to cycle or cycle more if there was better infrastructure, such as protected cycle lanes.

Walking and wheeling

The charity Wheels for Wellbeing defines walking and wheeling as “the action of moving at a pedestrian’s pace, whether or not someone is standing or sitting, walking or wheeling unaided or using any kind of aid to mobility.”

Research by YouGov in March 2022 found that 66% of women feel unsafe walking at night at least “sometimes”, whilst 26% of women “always” feel unsafe walking at night. The research also found that 20% of women never walk at night.

Similarly, data published by the Office for National Statistics in March 2022 found that 37% of women had “stopped walking in quiet places such as parks or open spaces after dark in the last month because of feeling unsafe.”

According to the Walk Wheel Cycle Trust, disabled women are more likely to experience street harassment than disabled men.

Research by the Department for Transport (PDF) found that “disabled women’s experiences around personal safety are never about disability alone” and that “women, disabled and nondisabled, face risks to their personal safety and have different options to manage them based on their whole identities.”

Government action Violence against women and girls strategy

In December 2025, the government published its new violence against women and girls (VAWG) strategy, Freedom from violence and abuse: a cross-government strategy to build a safer society for women and girls, together with an action plan (PDF).

The strategy says the government will take a “whole of society approach” to tackling VAWG, including by:

• prioritising prevention and tackling the root causes of VAWG,
• relentlessly pursuing perpetrators, and
• supporting victims and survivors of violence and abuse.

Protection from Sex-Based Harassment

The strategy confirmed that the government will commence the Protection from Sex-Based Harassment in Public Act 2023 on 1 April 2026. This means that from 1 April 2026, there will be a new offence of causing intentional harassment, alarm or distress to a person in public where the behaviour is done because of that person’s sex or presumed sex. The offence will carry a maximum penalty of two years imprisonment.

The VAWG action plan (PDF) also states that the Home Office will explore introducing a public sexual harassment awareness course for perpetrators to “challenge and change behaviours and reduce offending.”

Updating national design guidance

The strategy also sets out the government’s view that women and girls should “feel safe and be safe in every aspect of public life”, including in shared and open spaces such as streets and parks.

The strategy explains the government’s vision for ensuring that public environments should “foster confidence, dignity and freedom of movement” and that “well-lit streets, accessible transport, and thoughtful urban design can deter violence, reduce opportunities for harm, and send a clear message that public spaces belong to everyone.”

To achieve this, the government says it will “update national design guidance” so that considerations of VAWG are embedded into planning and transport guidance so that “safety considerations inform how public spaces are designed.”

The engineering company, AtkinsRealis, has published research on research on transport planning to maximise women’s safety [PDF]. It notes six ‘opportunity areas’, from human presence to infrastructure, with examples in each category of choices which can be made to contribute to women’s safety and their perceptions of it. It recommends design choices such as wide, clear footways; CCTV presence; secure bicycle parking which is well-lit, and sufficient lighting on routes which is unobscured by vegetation.

Safer Streets Fund

The Home Office’s Safer Streets Fund awards grants to police forces for interventions aimed at reducing violence against women and girls, anti-social behaviour and neighbourhood crime.

Since the Safer Streets Fund was launched in 2020, the government has awarded £159 million to 413 projects across England and Wales.

The most recent funding round (round five) awarded £34 million to police forces to implement measures from 1 October 2023 to 31 March 2025.

Measures that have received funding from the Safer Streets Fund include the installation of additional street lighting, additional CCTV and educational activities and behavioural change programmes aimed at tackling VAWG.

Interventions against violence on the transport system

In 2024, the Department for Transport (DfT) published an overview of types of interventions available relating to violence against women and girls on the transport system. The majority can be used by women walking, wheeling, cycling or running. Examples of these interventions include safety apps which women can use when travelling to ensure someone they know can track their location, and educational campaigns on how bystanders can react to harassment.

Walking and Cycling Strategy

The government consulted on its third cycling and walking infrastructure strategy (CWIS3) at the end of 2025. One of the new objectives proposed for the strategy is ‘ensure people are safe to travel actively’, acknowledging that this will help address the barriers to active travel which disproportionately impact women and children. The consultation proposes how achievement of this objective will be achieved, for example a decrease in people concerned about their safety when walking/cycling.

The government has not yet responded to the consultation.