'Women cyclists don't feel safe on the road'

Verbal abuse, sexual comments and motorists ing too close in their vehicles have become all too regular features of riding a bike in West Yorkshire, female cyclists have warned. In fact, one rider says the situation on the county's roads is so bad that a lot of women will no longer go cycling "because of safety".

"I wouldn't say I feel safe on the road," says Frankie Leveton, from Huddersfield, who gets on her bike up to four times a week.

"This war on cyclists is just perpetuating everything and making everything very dangerous for us out there," she explains.

Ms Leveton, 30, says the abuse she has personally received while riding in areas such as Holme Moss and Dove Stone Reservoir has included sexualised comments shouted from ing cars.

"I don't know what their motivation is," she shrugs.

"Is it because I'm a cyclist and the culture at the moment is that they are the worst people on the road? Or is it because I'm a woman?

"It's a testament to how much I love cycling, and how much cycling helps my mental health - that's my relief, my escape - that I'm still willing to go out."

But the verbal abuse is not the only problem Ms Leveton has faced.

She says that last year she reported at least 100 incidents of close ing by drivers to police, with action taken against the drivers involved in 82 of those cases.

According to the Highway Code, drivers should leave a gap of approximately 5ft (1.5m) when overtaking cyclists at speeds of up to 30mph (48 km/h), and they should give cyclists more space when overtaking at higher speeds.

"If I reported every driver that didn't give me 5ft, I wouldn't have time to ride my bike or go to work," Ms Leveton says.

According to West Yorkshire Police, between April 2024 and April 2025, 3,561 close es of cyclists by vehicles were reviewed by officers.

Of those, action was taken in 2,547 cases, with the driver being eligible for a retraining course, receiving a fixed penalty fine or a court summons.

Jillian Egan is also a keen cyclist, but she says the level of abuse she receives on the roads of West Yorkshire "is enough to put you off".

Ms Egan, 39, whose regular routes take her around Huddersfield, where she lives, as well as Hebden Bridge and Holmfirth, says: "The other day, I went for a ride and thought, 'I only had one person shout at me today'.

"Then I thought to myself, 'Isn't that a ridiculous thing to say":[]}