Everybody knows women drivers are safer - that's why woman car insurance is so much cheaper than regular motor insurance. But according to research published recently by Bath University, the average motorist sees a women on bicycles as a greater hazard than a men.
'Traffic psychologist' Dr Ian Walker carried out the research on a specially modified bicycle that senses the distance of overtaking cars.
He was surprised (as were we) to find that motorists passed substantially further from him when he pretended to be female, by donning a long blonde wig.
Assuming the disguise was convincing - and we think Doc Walker has the figure for it - that means the average driver is especially nervous about women cyclists causing accidents by wobbling, turning suddenly or falling off.
So why is this? Women get cheap car insurance policies because they are safer at the wheel, and that ought to make us safer cyclists in the eyes of other motorists.
Maybe Lee-Anne Bass, spokesperson for the woman car insurance experts at CoverGirl, has hit on the answer: "They were probably just pulling out to get a better look at the Doc," she said.
"Sporty, outdoorsy and blonde - what man wouldn't?" she added.