Disclaimer: This is not a scientific finding of any sort.
In Portland there is a foot path around the bay that is very popular for walkers and runners, especially in the summertime. Over the last few weeks, I have been noticing some trends that seem to relate to the weather. The numbers that I am going to throw out are completely arbitrary and I am pulling them out of thin air, since I did not actually do any counting. I am just using the numbers to show proportionally what I am noticing. The actual number of people that run around there is higher (it is a 3.5 mile trail…)
I notice on days with inclement weather, that there are not as many people on the trail. No big surprise. Of the people I see on the trail, about 50-60% or so are men, at a rough estimate. Maybe a few more.
On sunny days, there are probably 5-10 times the number of people as on a day when the sun is not shining and the rain is coming down (lightly). Of the people out there, though, it seems like 80-90% of them are women. That just seems a little odd to me. I have seen a lot of men around the trail before, but maybe it is just a late summer thing where men can’t find the time on a sunny day but can when the weather isn’t so good? Or maybe the same number of men are out running and it’s just the number of women that show up on the trail that is so different? I don’t know; it just seems odd to me.
I am not curious enough to actually set up a controlled experiment to see how many people pass me by. Maybe once I have something to sell I will set up a stand to promote myself and do an informal study then. But probably not.
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