DidntHearU

dd

retswerb

Link assist:
Dehumanization of cyclists predicts self-reported aggressive behaviour toward them: A pilot study - ScienceDirect
Bicycle helmet wearing is associated with closer overtaking by drivers: A response to Olivier and Walter, 2013 - PubMed (nih.gov)

I ran across this one last week as well, a little more recent research: The effect of safety attire on perceptions of cyclist dehumanisation - ScienceDirect
It was forced choice though, so it feels fairly meaningless to me. If someone has to call one of two images "less human" it seems obvious that they'll pick the one that's more obscured - but I'm less convinced that there are real-world implications.

On the other hand, there's definitely something to what I've heard called the 'removal' effect. If I bump into someone gently person-to-person, we're likely to each apologize and stay friendly. If I bump into someone's shopping cart with my cart, the interaction is likely to be less friendly. If I bump into someone's car with mine, a simple apology is definitely not going to cut it. Some of this is of course due to the increased likelihood of damage and financial implications, but I do think some of it is also due to greater distance/removal which allows us to carry less empathy. Bikes and bike gear certainly fit into that somewhere.

JoeyBike

Some cyclists dehumanize themselves. Large pointy "heads", crazy multicolored "skin" emblazoned with words no human person understands, operating a skinny machine that occupies spaces on roads that "real" humans either don't utilize or find these crazy slow "Martians" right in their way.

We do it to ourselves. Like a crazy cult that is sometimes easy to loathe by motorists.

work4bike

I feel perfectly fine riding on the roads. Nothing dehumanizing about it.





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jon c. 

I don't believe attire makes any difference. And I've never felt dehumanized. Although I can see that nasty urban traffic could feel dehumanizing for cyclists or drivers if it has to be part of one's daily routine.

tungsten

Some places in the sub-continent the natives, when gathering wood or whatever, when walking through the forest, will wear masks facing backwards so tigers stalking them will think they can be seen thereby foiling their intentions.
I think forthwidth I will afix a mask to the back of my helmet to make motorists think I watching them!

Roughstuff

I give vehicles a "thumbs up" as soon as I am aware they are coming up from behind. Very often when I see the drivers (I live in a small town) they chuckle that I give them the thumbs up at the same time THEY first see me.

Much the same for vehicles approaching me in the opposite direction. On my world tour it was my #1 way of determining if I was traveling in a hostile region.

In ay case the more feedback you have with drivers, I think, the more human you become as a rider.

DidntHearU

ddd

Daniel4

I think it's the hockey goaltender padding effect. Compare the padding goaltenders wore back in the '60's. No face masks and skimpy padding compared to the equipment worn today. As a result, (maybe?) hockey sticks became more flexible and stronger as goaltenders took more hits to the body.

And then there's the road safety and car safety design. They both allow the bad driver to take more and worse chances as survivability improves.

So all that translates to the cyclists who is dressed in hi-vis protected clothing including headwear. It's not the cyclist taking more risks. It's the driver taking the risk to the cyclist.

After stating all that, personally, I don't think I've experienced any worse. Maybe I don't have anything else to compare with or I'm too scared to ride in dark clothes with no lights or helmet.

Roughstuff

This one runs on money and makes you fat!
This one runs on fat and saves you money!

kayakindude

Interested thread. In my experience there is definitely bias. The vast majority of my bad interactions with drivers were when wearing bike gear and riding solo on my folding road bike, either with or without my high visibility neon backpack...though generally worse when not wearing the backpack.

Same commute on my 20 inch folder wearing little bike gear and a black backpack resulted in almost no bad interactions. The more you look like the guy who lost his license the better.

Tandem with the wife, a few issues here and there. Tandem with the wife and trailer containing our pooch, zero issues.

Worst behavior, group rides.

work4bike

I wonder if walking on a busy MUP with tons of bike traffic can be considered a dehumanizing experience.

Korina

I like to tell people that bikes run on cake.

I have no idea if wearing a helmet dehumanizes me to the drivers, all my negative encounters have been deliberate, but my kit runs more towards jorts and a t-shirt, though for longer rides I have some exercise capris from Target; flat seams and very comfortable. So if clothing plays into drivers' perceptions, I'm good. I suppose I'll find out if/when I get hit.

Roughstuff

im not sure of the time figures but if I recall yiu burn carbohydrates for the first hour of so when running….so for a bike it might be more like 2 or even three hours. After that you start to burn fat. If you do not train yourself to burn fat—-by doing it often—— you feel weak at this point. After I’ve been carbo loading and fat trained, I often would look at my legs while riding and feel they were completely autonomous, getting no instructions from my brain at all.

livedarklions

1 is fine, but the #2 "dead right" thing is a real pet peeve of mine because it's either meaningless or it gives a very wrong impression. It's usually aimed at cyclists who take an obvious ("assertive") road position when I think that it's timidity that likely renders people invisible and gets them hurt.

It certainly isn't aimed at people who ride through stop signs and red lights blindly, no one considers that "right".


The "dead right" thing is right up there with the "I had the right of way" epitaph as nonsense masquerading as being profound.
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Hondo Gravel

It was much safer before everyone had a smart phone.

Roughstuff

The data are mixed. I wish they would calculate it to more than 1 decimal figure, but back in the 1970s and though the 1980s bicycle fatalities were .5% and .4% of all motor vehicle crash deaths. They have been much lower than that in the 21st century, usually .2 and .3%. This is per 100,000 people, which is kind of a weird denominator!

AS a percentage of CRASHES..the number has been 2% forever. Again I wish they used more decimal places.

source: https://www.iihs.org/topics/fatality...early-snapshot

livedarklions

That's 0.2 deaths per 100,000 people, not 0.2% per 100,000 people which would be a statistic that made no sense. .2 per 100,000 is actually 0.0002 per cent. Lately, though, that number is 0.3 deaths per 100,000.

The steady 2% figure (no decimal point, BTW) is the proportion of motor vehicle crash deaths--2% of the people killed by motor vehicle crashes are cycling.

Roughstuff

Ahh that makes sense. Like I said in my post, I wish they included more decimal places. I am used to getting treasury bond quotes where they say the interest rate will be 4.1246534% ! On 31 trillion national debt, those decimal places mean real cash....

TLit

I'm a conservative bicyclist; I tend to drive as far right as is reasonable but do not want to risk a flat tire, as I saw more broken glass on the side of the road yesterday. Also a kid in a car with other kids threw a container of fluid on me which if I had gotten the plate # would have reported it as I'm sure it is against the law.

Eventyr

I currently live in Seoul, South Korea, and I only venture on the roads briefly when they are empty. Traffic congestion is too great to attempt to share the road with cars, especially given the aggressive driving customs here. Luckily, Seoul has dozens of dedicated bicycle paths that follow the many rivers. All cyclists, young, old, casual riders, and serious riders, use these paths, so you must be patent to avoid bike-on-bike accidents. I look at the constant slowing down and speeding up as an added benefit to my workout. If you ride far enough, you may see a sign that says, Warning. This area is an area where human casualties have occurred due to lost landmines. (Google translation from Korean) Just another challenge for cyclists.

Roughstuff

JoeyBike

And a basic pickup truck wasn't a fashion trend or 6 feet tall at the hood ornament.

plumberroy

First my comments are from experience here locally I have lived in several states and and this area is the only place I see the trends as bad as they are
In this area . It is not the high visibility/ safety jersey wearing that draws ire. It's the action of the minority of the people who dress like that that cause issues. Following traffic laws only when it's convenient , riding to fast and or aggressively around pedestrians . Intentionally slowing traffic when it not needed. And it's not only on the road. The ride M.U.Ps above the speed limit 3-10 riders cutting way too close to elderly and children etc. Even going 80 miles away from here where I used to live you don't see this behavior. I am not saying all cyclist are like this just in this area .
I wear a helmet if I ride in traffic usually light colored tee shirt and cargo shorts. never had a problem. Of course I look like someone who would be riding a Harley instead of a Surly

Chistophe516

I don't have a 'pointy' bike helmet. But I do have a 'racing' road bike. I also utilize bright colors. I 'take the lane'. Because traffic laws me to, by the use of the jurisdiction language.