Originally Posted by
OBoile
Do you, perhaps, think that the use of terms like this cause the people reading this forum to see drivers, not as people like us who we should be sharing the road with, but as something else? Something worse? Do you think that the use of this term promotes cooperation or animosity and disdain?
Not to mention the impression it would make on a non-cyclist who reads this thread.
When I am sub-consciously computing the sweetest line around a cager parked in the bikelane, or filtering past a 1/4 mile queue of cagers at the freeway on-ramp, or deftly operating the 3x8sp drivetrain of our commute tandem while setting up for the left turn that I refuse to take like a pedestrian. When I am doing all that, BikeForums is far from uppermost in my thoughts. Cagers have been called that since before I was interested in motorcycles and started reading bike magazines in the 70's. I think they've gotten used to it. Besides ... it's what they is. If we were to start calling them 'murderous morons', 'mouth breathers', 'entitled ^*&^#'s' ... no, I think they've done well to not have things escalate past 'cager' after all this time. I acknowledge each and every courtesy I receive on the road with a wave or other sign of goodwill. I don't see the term cager as anything other than descriptive. I imagine few, if any, non-cyclists make it this far so as to be infected with our culture and its biases.