Cycling While Wearing a Skirt? Now there’s a crime

I hate how the US often protrays itself as the land where women can wear what they want, when they want, with no religious or moral rules getting in the way. Seems it’s not true when you’re riding a bike!

“When Jasmijn Rijcken, the general manager of the VANMOOF bicycle company, traveled from Amsterdam to New York in late April, she was excited to see what she’d heard described as a city that had embraced bicycling. It wasn’t NYC’s new protected bike lanes that defined her ride through the city, however, but the New York Police Department, currently in the midst of a major crackdown against cyclists.
Jasmijn Rijcken was stopped and almost ticketed by an NYPD officer for biking in a skirt. The officer said, was too distracting for drivers.
Rijcken was in town for the New Amsterdam Bike Show on April 30. After she had dismounted on Broadway in SoHo, an NYPD officer stopped, berated, and threatened to ticket Rijcken for wearing a skirt while cycling, which, it must be noted, is entirely legal and common. Rijcken says the officer told her that her skirt was dangerous because she would distract drivers and potentially cause them to crash.”

For the full story including a photo of the shocking outfit the cyclist was wearing go here.

Haven’t the NYPD ever ready the Copenhagen Cycle Chic website and admired the fashionable outfits women wear for riding in other parts of the world? (See their whole section on riding while wearing skirts and dresses.) Guess not.

Thanks CMacD.