Anything particularly unsafe about flat bars???
I was on a wine tour last night and got talking to another older couple that lives in the area and are into cycling. She rides in a local club and was telling me about it, there's 4 levels and she rides with level 4 (the slowest). I know you can't really tell someones ability looking at them but she's early 60's, 5'3" or so, and didn't appear to be particularly athletic, where I'm 46, 6'0", and though not the strongest rider not in bad shape either. I was thinking if I rode in her group with the level 4's that it sounded great to get out for a not too intense social ride with a group, so I said I'd look into it.
I built my bike myself to best fit the type of riding I do, it probably falls in the hybrid category, maybe flat bar gravel bike(ish). It's still a decent bike though. When it came up that I rode a flat bar her response was "Oh, we ride road bikes. You wouldn't be able to keep up. Besides they wouldn't let you ride anyway, flat bars are too unsafe, you need to have drop bars". I never got a chance to ask her what that meant before the tour was over.
Now I'm fairly confident that if she can keep up with the group then I'd be able to too, road bike or not. However, what could she possibly mean that flat bars are too unsafe?