This is an interesting point of view

[RobertWhitehead]

Fair point, more awareness about road safety is needed but I'm not 100% sure that using a recent incident as an intro is the right approach. 

 

I do not find that this article has a lot of substance and doesn't really offer any solution to the problem! Maybe I need to put a face to the journalist for me to better understand  .

 

https://mybroadband.co.za/news/science/304204-drivers-see-cyclists-as-less-than-human-with-violence-against-them-seen-as-funny.html?source=newsletter

 

  

[The Ouzo]

that "author" did nothing more than write an intro paragraph and then extract quotes from somewhere else.

Useless article taking up space for nothing.

[m-squared]

MyBB is filled with cyclist haters.  They make fun whenever an incident happens.  

 

If you want to avoid having a *** Friday, don't look for the thread where the most recent incident took place.  

 

Filled with self obsessed morons with predetermined opinions on righteousness.

[Eldron]

Filled with self obsessed morons with predetermined opinions on righteousness.

So nothing like this harmonious hub of ours where everyone debates to learn and there are no personal insults...

[DJR]

that "author" did nothing more than write an intro paragraph and then extract quotes from somewhere else.

Useless article taking up space for nothing.

Agreed, typical of the extremely superficial online "journalism" aimed at attracting people with the attention span of a goldfish.

 

Even the study quoted is only a pilot study, so very basic initial research meant to guide a full scale study on the subject. But it makes sense to me that the dehumanization of cyclists could well be behind the aggressive behaviour of drivers towards us. It is so much easier to swat an irritating thing on a bike than to hit and kill a mother / father / brother / sister / child like your own. Therefore, to combat that aggressive behaviour, the logical thing to do is to get drivers to see cyclists as real people! Below is the extract from the quoted study.

 

"Cycling provides many benefits to individuals and society, yet in many countries attitudes toward cyclists are largely negative. Public and humorous references to violence against cyclists are not uncommon and a significant minority of cyclists report harassment and aggression. We hypothesize that these hostile attitudes and behaviours are caused, in part, by the dehumanization of cyclists among some individuals. Dehumanization refers to any situation where people are seen or treated as if they are less than fully human. This paper presents a pilot study applying two validated dehumanization measures to a road user group for the first time. We found that the dehumanization measures were internally consistent, showed good discriminant validity (compared to general attitudes to cyclists) and were associated with self-reported aggression toward cyclists. The findings suggest that dehumanization is a concept that deserves further exploration in contexts where cyclists are a minority group. If we can put a human face to cyclists, we may improve attitudes and reduce aggression directed at on-road cyclists. This could result in a reduction in cyclist road trauma or an increase in public acceptance of cyclists as legitimate road users."

[The Ouzo]

Agreed, typical of the extremely superficial online "journalism" aimed at attracting people with the attention span of a goldfish.

 

Even the study quoted is only a pilot study, so very basic initial research meant to guide a full scale study on the subject. But it makes sense to me that the dehumanization of cyclists could well be behind the aggressive behaviour of drivers towards us. It is so much easier to swat an irritating thing on a bike than to hit and kill a mother / father / brother / sister / child like your own. Therefore, to combat that aggressive behaviour, the logical thing to do is to get drivers to see cyclists as real people! Below is the extract from the quoted study.

 

"Cycling provides many benefits to individuals and society, yet in many countries attitudes toward cyclists are largely negative. Public and humorous references to violence against cyclists are not uncommon and a significant minority of cyclists report harassment and aggression. We hypothesize that these hostile attitudes and behaviours are caused, in part, by the dehumanization of cyclists among some individuals. Dehumanization refers to any situation where people are seen or treated as if they are less than fully human. This paper presents a pilot study applying two validated dehumanization measures to a road user group for the first time. We found that the dehumanization measures were internally consistent, showed good discriminant validity (compared to general attitudes to cyclists) and were associated with self-reported aggression toward cyclists. The findings suggest that dehumanization is a concept that deserves further exploration in contexts where cyclists are a minority group. If we can put a human face to cyclists, we may improve attitudes and reduce aggression directed at on-road cyclists. This could result in a reduction in cyclist road trauma or an increase in public acceptance of cyclists as legitimate road users."

but its a natural human trait to dehumanize what we dont like. It makes maiming or killing the "enemy" easier.

 

But yes, some sort of awareness campaign highlighting the humans on the bikes would work.

[Stretch]

It was posted on the hot off the press thread. Didn't even bother looking at the comments because of the hate that would be spewed