A national study has identified the problem of dehumanisation of cyclists.
A national Australian study has found more than half of car drivers think cyclists are not completely human.
The study found a link between dehumanization and deliberate acts of aggression, with more than one in ten people having deliberately driven their car close to a cyclist.
But if drivers can put a human face to cyclists, researchers say this could reduce aggression directed at cyclists and road trauma involving riders.
The study, involving 442 respondents in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland, identified people’s attitude to cyclists and whether they were cyclists or non-cyclists themselves.
On both ape-human and insect-human scales, 55 per cent of non-cyclists and 30 per cent of cyclists rated cyclists as not completely human.
“Amongst people who ride, amongst people who don’t ride, there is still people who think that cyclists aren’t fully human. »