Can Saying “People on Bikes” Instead of “Cyclists” Make Biking Safer?

A few year ago , I buy a burnished orange urban center bike , which I chose because it allowed me to sit up as I rode . A few times a week , I wear my veritable clothes — mostly dresses — to go to meetings , run errands or hinge upon on the bike path by my theatre . I do n’t own any cushiony shorts . What would you call me ?

ANew York Times op - edthat made the daily round last hebdomad called masses like me a “ cyclist . ” So did anentire series on bikingin the Los Angeles Times . In fact , most U.S. stories about bikes or bike lump every kind of bike rider , from cruising tourists to metropolis commuters to training racers , into this undivided category .

But every time someone refers to me has a bicycler , I escape from my question . A cyclist is someone wearing those cushiony shorts , hunched over a bicycle with clip - in treadle — someone who ’s more potential to be heading to a triathlon on the weekend instead of put crepe paper through her spokes and toodling downtown to meet some friends for brunch .

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It turns out , I ’m not alone in this . “ To me , and many others , ‘ cyclist ’ brings to mind someone wear upon Lycra , hinge on a performance bike — someone who is engaged more in a fun than a mode of transportation or approachable recreation , ” suppose Carolyn Szczepanski , theatre director of communication at theLeague of American Bicyclists . “ While we dead embrace those riders , it does n’t paint a full , naturalistic scene of the people who are riding — both for protagonism and outreach intent and public sensing purposes . ”

Would you call these citizenry wheeler ? Top : A “ hipster on a bushel gear mechanism bike , ” picture bysolominviktor ; Bottom : “ windy cargo motorcycle mom ” Shelby Sanchez rides with her kids in Long Beach , California , exposure by Lisa Beth Anderson forPedal Love

Even biking publications are pulling away from the term . “ We sample to stave off the word ‘ cyclist ’ consciously as much as potential , ” says Mia Kohout , chief executive officer and editor in chief - in - chief ofMomentum Magazine . “ The word call forth a muckle of damaging connotations . There ’s a huge chemical group of people—60 percent of the people in cities — who are interested and concerned about riding a wheel , but the countersign seems too hardcore to them . ”

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From an protagonism standpoint , getting rid of the word “ wheeler ” remove perceptual barriers that forbid people from essay biking in the first plaza , says Dave Snyder , executive director of theCalifornia Bicycle Coalition . “ It makes biking approachable to anyone , and diminishes the mother wit of bike as an activity for a subculture or one that requires an ‘ identity ’ to engage in . Someone who has a bike in their household somewhere and only occasionally rides it and never would consider themselves a ‘ cyclist ’ is someone we should definitely turn over out to . ”

In short , “ cyclist ” might be too minute of a Holy Scripture to report many Americans on bikes today . But it ’s more than just semantics . The word “ wheeler ” may be make cycle more unsafe .

“ I personally retrieve the word ‘ wheeler ’ is too mechanized and permit others to not consider ‘ cyclists ’ hoi polloi , ” sound out Alexis Lantz , a policy psychoanalyst with the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health and former insurance policy director for theLos Angeles County Bicycle Coalition . The terminus , she say , focuses more on the cycle itself — on an aim , not a person — as opposed to who ’s riding it , obscuring the fact that there ’s a living , breathe man behind the handlebar .

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Instead , Lantz and many other counselor urge ditch “ bicyclist ” for a simple yet important replacement : “ people on bikes . ”

“ multitude who depend on wheel ” or “ multitude on bicycles ” place the emphasis back on the human activity , aver Szczepanski . “ We want to put ‘ masses ’ first . We want to verify that policymakers , automobilist , everyone recognise that we are your mother , sister , friends , neighbors who are using this great tool — a cycle — and deserve to be safe and respected like everyone else . ”

A refuge campaign byBike Pittsburghfocuses on masses and keep off the word “ cyclist ”

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Of of course , not all bike counsellor tally that this is a battle worth fighting . At this month’sCalifornia by Bike Summitin Oakland , this argumentation rise during a workshop on gain out to grouping underserved by bicycle . “ Some people finger powerfully about keep the word ‘ wheeler ’ entire as the standard for simplicity ’s sake , ” pronounce attendee Maria Sipin , a health communications specialist at Children ’s Hospital Los Angeles . “ Others demand more diversity and inclusion , which can be achieve by using lyric that appeal to more the great unwashed . ” Sipin believe it ’s a personal alternative : “ As a road safety instructor , I give people the pick to self - discover and key their own experience on cycle . ” What does Sipin call herself ? “ A person who loves to ride a bike , ” she enunciate .

A phrase like that , while accurate , can be a real mouthful — or a nightmare for a newspaper editor program ’s word tally . So maybe we need to coin a new discussion entirely . For case law here , we can search to The Netherlands where , in some cities , up to 70 percent of all trip are taken by bicycle . According to Mark Wagenbuur , who blogs at the siteBicycle Dutch , there ’s avery interesting differentiationbetween the English and Dutch languages when it add up to biking .

The Dutch word for wheel is fiets , but that word can only describe what we Americans would call a city cycle or sit - up bike . If the motorcycle in question is what we ’d call a racing cycle or a road cycle , they ’d call that subspecies fiets or wielrenfiets . “ The same croak for fietser or cyclist , ” writes Wagenbuur . “ To a Dutch someone that can never be someone in specific clothes on a raceway fiets . The Dutch have a different word for those people , they call them wielrenner — literally ‘ wheel moon curser , ’ and it is enunciate almost like that . A fietser is someone in everyday wearing apparel on a baby-sit - up bike — and nothing else ! ”

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Helpful illustrations for the Dutch words for “ people on bikes ” and “ cyclists , ” images viaBicycle Dutch

Of course , it may not even be that simple-minded . Professional triathlete Jennifer Tetrick is gallant to call herself a bicycler , even though she acknowledges the stereotypes around the condition . But the other categories are not so disregard - and - dry out , she says . She watch dissimilar type of bikes make their own kind of ingroup — fixed - geared wheel cycle , beach cruiser , lowriders , folding bikes , commuter bike , recumbent velocipede — and also mark that mass can move between the labels , like a soul who start out razz to work and finally decide to race . “ I would n’t desire to get stuck in the speech , ” says Tetrick . “ We get so caught up in what defines us in some manner instead of what unites us as people who be intimate bike and want to see more people on bikes . hoi polloi have to part devolve on somewhere . ”

The issue is only go to become more complex as more Americans take to the street in whatever kind of new two - bicycle contraption are are on the sensible horizon , result in perhaps even more novel nomenclature . peradventure it ’s meter wheel rider stop submarine - labeling themselves at all , says Kohout . “ I might use a bike to get around , but do we desire to discover ourselves by the pecker we use to get from point in time A to point group B ? ”

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“ At one point it ’s kinda silly , ” agrees Snyder . “ Do I consider myself a ‘ motorist ’ because I sometimes use a car ? ”

But that ’s exactly why the “ mass who wheel ” manikin work so well . We could interpolate it across the integral world of shipping to bring back empathy and renew attention to the people — the factual multitude — on our street . hear saying “ masses who drive ” instead of “ number one wood , ” or “ people who walk ” or else of “ footer . ” all of a sudden this inactive , faceless term that usually connotes a victim or someone at fault turns into a more active , visual description of an genuine human who is choosing to do something . I can place more with a “ person who drives ” or a “ person who walks ” or a “ person who use a wheelchair ” or a “ individual who sit the bus ” or a “ person on a Segway , ” even if I do n’t do any of those thing , because I understand , even beyond their manner of transit , they ’re still people .

If there ’s any group that could aid guide this change , it ’s the League of American Bicyclists . The organization was founded in 1880 as the first advocacy administration for citizenry who rode wheel , campaigning to improve road conditionsand leading to the pavage of roads nationwide . They ’ve already witness several change to the agency Americans talk about bicycling . The original name of the group , ground on what we called masses on bikes back then?The League of American Wheelmen .

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