Friday, March 29, 2019




Experts call for the word 'cyclist' to be BANNED because it 'dehumanises' people who ride bikes

How about "biker"?

Experts have called for the word 'cyclist' to be banned because they believe the term 'dehumanises' people who ride bikes.

A new study, conducted by researchers at Queensland University of Technology and Monash University, found there was a link between the dehumanisation of cyclists and deliberate acts of aggression directed towards them on the road.

QUT professor Narelle Haworth said the study, which questioned 442 people in Victoria, NSW and Queensland, found 55 per cent of non-cyclists rated cyclists as 'not completely human'.

She is behind a push to scrap the word 'cyclist' and replace it with the term 'people who ride bikes'.

Professor Haworth, who is also the Director of the Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety- Queensland, said it was important for drivers to view cyclists as real people.

'If we used the term people on bikes, instead of cyclists, we're giving a term that is more human-like and less like a species,' Professor Haworth told Daily Mail Australia.

SOURCE 


4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh what nonsense.

Anonymous said...

Cyclist is one word. People who ride bikes is 4 words. People on bikes is 3 words. Bicycle riders is 2 words. Why replace one word with 2 or 3 or 4? I'll stick with cyclist, thanks. I know they are humans, even if some are pains in the butt as they cycle about.


AIB/44

Stan B said...

So instead of saying "cyclists aren't completely human" they'll be saying "people who ride bikes aren't completely human!" So much better!

Anonymous said...

The word cyclist only became dehumanizing due the the behavior of some of the cyclists themselves.