More than half of motorists see people who ride bicycles as not entirely human, according to a new study.
The study, carried out by researchers at the Queensland University of Technology and Monash University, involved 442 participants from across Australia.
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It found that 55 per cent of car drivers – and 30 per cent of cyclists themselves – saw those who ride bikes on the road as sub-human.
Professor Narelle Haworth, director of the Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety – Queensland, was one of four academics behind the study.
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She has argued for a deliberate change in the way people talk about cyclists – beginning with the word ‘cyclist’.
“Let’s talk about people who ride bikes rather than cyclists because that’s the first step towards getting rid of this dehumanisation”, said Haworth.
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The study found 17 per cent of respondents were actively hostile towards cyclists, with 11 per cent having deliberately driven close to a cyclist on the road and nine per cent having used their car to cut a cyclist off.
Clearly disturbed by the findings, Haworth said: “Using your car to deliberately block a cyclist, using your car to deliberately cut off a cyclist, throwing an object at a cyclist – these acts of direct aggression are dangerous.”
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Monash University’s Dr Alexa Delbosc, who co-authored the study, said the dehumanisation of cyclists by motorists made it “easier to justify hatred or aggression towards them”.
Delbosc echoed Haworth’s sentiments, saying society needed to “do a better job at putting a human face to people who ride bikes, so that hopefully we can help put a stop to the abuse”.