Author: Derek Beres / Source: Big Think
- A new study in Australia shows that half of drivers don’t rate cyclists as humans—this includes cyclists themselves.
- This research follows up on previous studies that show drivers act more aggressively toward cyclists after dehumanizing them.
- Cycling accidents in the US account for nearly 3 percent of all deaths on the roads.
The first time I visited Amsterdam I quickly learned the rules of the road. Freshly off a 23-hour train ride from Madrid—three seven-hour train rides and two short connecting shuttles, meaning no sleeping car for the duration—my friend and I stumbled down Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal in a daze. Discerning any distinction between walking, cycling, driving, and trolley lanes proved difficult in such a state.
I was awakened to this fact when an angry Nederlander put his shoulder down and checked me onto the “walking” sidewalk as he pedaled by. Welcome to that famous Dutch hospitality.
In fact, for the rest of our trip, the hospitality was overwhelmingly positive. In retrospect, I can understand the biker’s frustration. Cyclists are perpetually engaged in an existential fight for their lives, figuratively and literally. As someone who has pedaled around Jersey City, Brooklyn, and Los Angeles over the course of my adult life, I know well the struggle cyclists face.
When my editor assigned this new study from her Australian homeland, my initial reaction was to chuckle. Here’s the key bullet point, for context: “A national Australian study has found more than half of car drivers think cyclists are not completely human.
” The data are not that funny even if the headline is.Conducted by researching 442 respondents in Victoria, New South Wales, and Queensland, lead author Dr. Alexa Delbosc and her team at Monash University discovered that by dehumanizing cyclists, drivers were more likely to act aggressively toward them. In fact, 10 percent of drivers admitted purposefully driving close to cyclists even though the law calls for a five-foot distance when passing them on the road.
Credit: Delbosc et al. / Monash University
The study authors designed this insect-human scale because of the common slurs used against cyclists referring to them as “cockroaches” or “mosquitoes”.
Given the above graph to rate their feelings on cyclists, 55 percent of non-cyclists chose the life form to the left of human. Thirty percent of cyclists did the same, which makes you question their skills in self-perception (or self-worth). Seventeen percent of drivers report blocking cyclists on purpose while 9 percent have cut off cyclists for—fun? sport? schadenfreude?
Two other recent studies, also conducted in Australia, confirm these results. The first, published in Journal of Safety Research, relied on self-reporting by 3,769 drivers in Queensland. Nearly half replied that they don’t care about the five-foot rule. Fortunately, a slightly higher percentage of drivers (4 percent more, to be exact) pay closer attention when the speed limit is higher.
The second study, this one in Accident Analysis & Prevention, polled 308 drivers, coming to a simple conclusion: They think roads are built for cars alone. As the first commenter on the article notes, “I’m just happy when they don’t throw things at me,” a sentiment confirmed by…
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