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news
London cyclists at traffic lights (copyright Britishcycling.org_.uk).jpgBan word “cyclist” to stop driver aggression, urge academics
Academics in Australia have called for the word “cyclist” to be banned after a study revealed that more than half of drivers don’t view people on bikes as being completely human.
The study established a link between the dehumanisation of bike riders and acts of deliberate aggression towards them by motorists.
The research was carried out by academics at Monash University, Queensland University of Technology's Centre for Accident Research & Road Safety – Queensland (CARRS-Q) and the University of Melbourne's School of Psychological Sciences.
They say it is the first study to look at the dehumanisation of a specific group of road users, with previous research on the subject focusing on racial or ethnic groups.
Published in Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour under the title ‘Dehumanization of cyclists predicts self-reported aggressive behaviour toward them’ the researchers say that cyclists are seen as a minority group which makes them a target of negative attitudes and behaviour.
In total 442 people in New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria were questioned about their attitudes towards cyclists and asked whether they themselves were a cyclist or non-cyclist.
Participants were shown one of two images – the well-known picture of the evolution of apes to humans, and one specially designed for the study that showed the evolution from cockroach to human.
Lead author Dr Alexa Delbosc said the latter had been chosen due to words such as "cockroaches" or "mosquitoes" being used as insults against cyclists.
On both the ape-human and insect-human scales, 55 per cent of non-cyclists and 30 per cent of cyclists assessed cyclists as not being completely human.
Some 17 per cent of respondents said they had used their car to deliberately block a cyclist, 11 per cent admitted that they had deliberately driven their car close to a cyclist, and 9 per cent agreed they had used their car to cut off a cyclist.
Dr Delbosc said: "When you don't think someone is 'fully' human, it's easier to justify hatred or aggression towards them. This can set up an escalating cycle of resentment.
"If cyclists feel dehumanised by other road users, they may be more likely to act out against motorists, feeding into a self-fulfilling prophecy that further fuels dehumanisation against them.
"Ultimately we want to understand this process so we can do a better job at putting a human face to people who ride bikes, so that hopefully we can help put a stop to the abuse."
Co-author Professor Narelle Haworth, who is director of the CARRS-Q Centre, said it wasn’t just a case of motorists dehumanising cyclists.
"The bigger issue is that significant numbers of both groups rank cyclists as not 100 per cent human," she explained.
"Amongst people who ride, amongst people who don't ride, there is still people who think that cyclists aren't fully human.
"The dehumanisation scale is associated with the self-reporting of direct aggression.
"Using your car to deliberately block a cyclist, using your car to deliberately cut off a cyclist, throwing an object at a cyclist – these acts of direct aggression are dangerous."
She added: "Let's talk about people who ride bikes rather than cyclists because that's the first step towards getting rid of this dehumanisation.
In 2015, we reported how campaigners in Seattle had successfully overcome a ‘bikelash’ over the introduction of better cycling infrastructure in the US city through careful choice of words that do not create a “them and us” attitude, such as saying “people driving” instead of “drivers” and “people cycling” instead of “cyclists.”
> Are you a ‘cyclist’ or a ‘person who cycles’? How language helped Seattle overcome its ‘bikelash’
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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23 comments
Just heard on the news that the vegan who was told by a NW bank employee that all vegans should be "punched in the face" has been given £1k compensation. Vegans are also going to some court to have veganism added to the list of people who can claim protection under discrimination laws.
Now if we could get the same for cyclists, the msm is going to lose half of their click bait or be paying a fortune in damages. We could crowd-fund suing JSP for a start.
I care.
OK, so the list of places to which to emigrate if Boris Johnson becomes PM has just got one entry shorter.
Please, don't say that even in jest. Mind you, the very fact that he is being considered is ample evidence of the bankruptcy at the heart of the tory party.
This has been obvious for at least twenty years, but it's nice that someone has produced evidence.
What we need now is for cyclists to be included in the hate crime legislation.
No. What you need is for strict liability laws for motorists like most other sensible countries have (not Britain, of course). Where I live, motorists don't hassle cyclists because they know they'll get the book thrown at them if they do (excepting those that don't it because they have an internal morality, anyway).
Where do you live? And what other countries have strict presumed liability? I know Spain recently passed legislation for close passing, and its sunny.
If Janet Street-Porter ever wrote this about blacks, or Muslims or any other minority group, she would find herself arrested.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-6858315/JANET-STREET-PORTER-C...
But it's still 'cool' to hate cyclists, so she gets a free pass.
JHC, even by DM standards, that's just awful, and the comments are worse.
It's always been the case that when things are going badly, the right scouts around for a scapegoat. A weak, undefended minority whom they can blame. It's always been Jews, but they're not alone, now. Blacks, Asians, Muslims, vegans, cyclists...
Anything but blame themselves for the fucking disintegration of British society.
I miss "as Easy..." his posts are very good, but he has had nothing new for ages.
Sadly that lack of activity seems consistent with the general fading away of the 'cycling boom'. And Sadiq Khan's lack of activity on cycling (or on anything, really).
In fairness, I suppose, everything in this country has run out of steam as all we do now is argue about Brexit. Our national identity is now largely based on that.
'a study revealed that more than half of drivers don’t view people on bikes as being completely human...'
Tsk. It's tough being ahead of the curve.
'As I've pointed out before: to the overwhelming majority of British car drivers, you are vermin. You matter less than a slug on which they'd step.
Dehumanising another group makes it easier to kill them. The Nazis knew this, of course. I'm not equating cyclists and Jews because obviously, we're not being rounded up and marched into gas chambers. But the process of dehumanisation is broadly similar. What's that term that I see very often in comment threads on the right-wing media? 'Road lice'?
'Läuse' in German. A common term post-1933'
https://road.cc/content/news/257362-leave-vs-remain-poll-leave-swipelove...
Australia obtained it's racist and bigotted attitudes from us, it definitely didn't come from it's original inhabitants.
We had a very good attempt to exterminate the ancient inhabitants of that continent, and indeed the last Tasman Islander died in a "death" camp, nice to know we invented those before the Germans, that and the concentration camps we used in the Boer war.
From you maybe, I've never been to Australia.
That's actually a colonial myth that the indigenous Tasmanians are trying hard to drive out. Tasmanians weren't exterminated, they survived, see
http://tasmanianaboriginal.com.au/liapootah/whomakes.htm
Bike-wankers
Australia has a long and unfortunate history of treating people who aren't *quite* like them as subhuman, but I can't help thinking that similar results would be obtained from a sample of taxi drivers in this country.
Ironically, the legislation mandating helmets for people on bikes probably contributes to the depersonalisation effect.
My thoughts exactly. Without a helmet it's much more ovbious that it's a person on a bike rather than a 'cyclist'.
Several studies have shown that someone without a helmet is given a wider berth than someone with, as the danger they are exposed to is perceived to be higher
What I would like to see is an investigation of the degree to which support for compulsry bike helmet laws is itself a function of anti-cyclist sentiment. It seems to me that a good deal of it comes from a stance of wanting to 'get at' cyclists and ensure they know their (subservient) place. I suspect much of it comes from a desire to dehumanise. Hence the 'where's your helmet' shouts bad drivers sometimes come out with.
Sir might find this interesting…
https://aseasyasridingabike.wordpress.com/2017/08/25/punishment/
That's pretty much what I believe to be the case, though ideally I'd like to see (and this Australian paper goes a small step towards it) a peer-reviewed, published academic paper that made an evidence-backed case for that exact point.
(I don't think it's a coincidence that the countries with compulsory helmet laws seem to be the ones with the most hostile attitudes from drivers towards cyclists)
Very accurate, I think. Reminds me of my days commuting into London... just why *is* everyone so angry? Especially the people who drive nice shiny new cars? I always remember one man in particular, leaning out of his X5's window to shout at me because *he* nearly ran me over (by driving onto a roundabout I was already on). With two small children in the back. Just amazing.