• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

PhD Thesis looks at attitudes of drivers toward cyclists, and it ain't pretty

L

Lonely1

Unconfirmed Member
We just a had a thread about cyclists on the road and what GAF think about it. Sadly, It was closed before the discussion could unfold due to an unrelated issue. I think that this recent article will be a good starting point to start the discussion anew.

Why, when there is a crash, do drivers (and the police) always blame the cyclist? Tara Goddard asked these questions and a whole lot more in her PHD thesis, Exploring Drivers’ Attitudes and Behaviors toward Bicyclists: The Effect of Explicit and Implicit Attitudes on Self-Reported Safety Behaviors. In it she tries to dig into what drivers are actually thinking, writing in the summary:
Drivers’ attitudes toward bicyclists, and how those attitudes may affect drivers’ behavior, are a largely unexplored area of research, particularly in the United States. Bringing together social psychological theories with existing techniques for measuring driver attitudes and behavior, this research utilizes an online survey to measure drivers’ explicit attitudes and self-reported behaviors and test drivers’ implicit attitudes toward bicyclists. Understanding drivers’ attitudes toward bicyclists, and whether those attitudes predict behaviors, is integral to advancing goals of community livability that incorporate safety and environmental sustainability.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

Some excerpts:

Roadways are highly congested (and thus contested), publicly funded space, and both space and funding are a finite and limited resource. This results in the perception and reality of roadway competition as a zero-sum game between roadway users (Aldred, 2012). It may be that this “realistic” competition is a stand-in for social competition; that is, the roadway is a battle ground for social domination, rather than just access to physical space.
Click to expand...

While the physical bodywork of a car essentially anonymizes drivers, bicyclists are visible in their variety of shapes, sizes, ages, gender, and “racialized bodies” (Urry, 2007, p.48). Drivers have shown bias in yielding behavior by the race, apparent disabled status, or age of a crossing pedestrian (see TreeHugger: Don't cross the street while black, according to new study); while drivers in higher status cars were less likely to yield to a pedestrian. (See TreeHugger: Study reveals the obvious: The rich are different from you and me, especially behind the wheel) When interacting with bicyclists, drivers used greater passing distance when the bicyclist was unhelmeted or appeared female.
Click to expand...

In the model of pressure to overtake, only age, social dominance, and legitimacy were significant predictors. The social dominance scale had the highest standardized coefficient. This factor scale reflects anger at bicyclist rulebreaking, willingness to excuse drivers’ rule-breaking, and perhaps most importantly, the belief that bicyclists should not hold up traffic. This suggests that drivers’ own feelings about bicyclists not holding up traffic may cause them to perceive, real or not, that drivers behind them are angry if they do not overtake. Another possibility is that they get angry when drivers in front of them do not pass bicyclists, and so they assume other drivers feel the same. ... Although roadway legitimacy is modelled as the predictor of overtaking pressure, it is possible that the relationship goes the other direction – drivers who feel pressure to overtake may see bicyclist licensing and registration as a way to control bicyclists or make them behave.
Click to expand...

So, basically, the more people hate cyclists, the more they want to regulate them and helmet them and licence them, rather than actually give them some basic safe infrastructure (which might mean giving up some precious road.)
Click to expand...

34.jpg


Source.

So, here we are at. Do you feel biased against cyclist, GAF?
 
As someone who rides his bike to work a lot over a fairly short distance, people are fucking shitty when it comes to biker riders. I also consider myself pretty respectful, and also scared stupid, of cars so I stay to the far edge of the road and telegraph every turn and move I'm going to make. Doesn't really matter as I've already had several experiences with people swerving at me, screaming obscenities, and one time nearly crushing me against a guard rail. I try to avoid riding on a road if at all possible.
 
I'll be honest, I get annoyed sometimes. But it isn't their fault. It's the trash level engineering and urban planning that plagues the US.

Sorry, I just don't want to be stuck behind a cyclist going 15mph on a stretch of road. I'd love for more dedicated bike lanes or otherwise exclusive bike-use infrastructure near roads. Safer for everyone and just prevents cars from interacting with bikes.
 
People on bikes want to tell you to share the road all the while not obeying the rules of the road. That's why I get frustrated with them.
 
Glad that I live in The Netherlands where using your bike is the most common form of transportation, so we have the proper infrastructure for it as well.
 
No problem with cyclists but I've seen so many of them run red lights straight into fast traffic. It's terrifying.
 
I don't drive often, so maybe that's it, but I don't get the generalised antipathy towards cyclists I see from some drivers, when in the car with them. Sure, if the cyclist does something stupid, I get irritation/fear, but most of the time it's a general loathing I see, and it makes no fucking sense.

I once saw a woman pulling out of a parking space in her car, and a cyclist had to swerve to dodge, because she wasn't looking his way. He called out something like 'watch it!' and carried on. Woman went loco. Stopped car, got out, screamed abuse at him. He paused and slowed and turned around, a look of shock, and then cycled off. She carried on screaming, about 'road tax' and how much of a fuckstick he was. It wasn't even a close, high-speed near miss. It was a 3mph swerve.

Then again, I see some utterly troglodyte cyclists. And if you don't wear a helmet, you're already a tool.

There's my scattergun 2 p.
 
I can't count the number of times I've missed a light or been scared shitless because of a cyclist. You should not be allowed to go 15 in a 45 no matter what you're driving.
 
Carn82 said:
Glad that I live in The Netherlands where using your bike is the most common form of transportation, so we have the proper infrastructure for it as well.
Click to expand...

My local authority in the UK spent millions on a cycle lane that I assumed was going to be Dutch style, but no they just painted lines on the side of the road. At the biggest junction they couldn't figure out how to do cycle traffic so they just didn't bother having a cycle lane there. Even so, since this opened there are way more cyclists. Build it, and they will come...

You guys have it all figured out. Especially the way you handle roundabouts.
 
It's definitely partly the fault of how the road is designed in the first place, but I really really hate it when I see cyclist in the middle of the road in congested traffic.
 
GoldenEye 007 said:
I'll be honest, I get annoyed sometimes. But it isn't their fault. It's the trash level engineering and urban planning that plagues the US.

Sorry, I just don't want to be stuck behind a cyclist going 15mph on a stretch of road. I'd love for more dedicated bike lanes or otherwise exclusive bike-use infrastructure near roads. Safer for everyone and just prevents cars from interacting with bikes.
Click to expand...

My thoughts exactly. I'd adore for more people to ride bikes. Better for the environments and their health than driving in a car. But as someone that does have to drive a car, having to sit behind a bicyclist that's going a full 20 mph below the speed limit because there's not room to pass them sucks.
 
imo the use of cars has impacted us on a subconscious level, normalizing a dangerous, neglectful, anti-social view of your neighbors. cars normalize violence and death on a grand scale and suggest a hierarchy of the value of human life, with cars at the top and pedestrians at the bottom and cyclists in between.
 
jviggy43 said:
People on bikes want to tell you to share the road all the while not obeying the rules of the road. That's why I get frustrated with them.
Click to expand...

You have a lot of feelings about what other taxpayers feel. How do you know what they want to tell you? I'm a cyclist. What rules am I disobeying "all the while?"

Did you actually read the article because you just did the irrational thing it explains is irrational.
 
Too many cyclysits pick and choose what traffic laws they want to follow. I do too when I ride, but I do so in a way that assumes responsibility for my own survival. Ie: stay out of the way of cars. I can't even group ride with people. My idea of what's safe when cycling is so different than the norm.

Like if I'm riding a shoulder on a windy two lane and cars get held up behind me I ---gasp--- pull over and let them by.
 
I have been screamed at and had objects thrown at me while bike riding on the shoulder of country roads. I'll never understand this behavior.
 
I loathe cyclists on the road. It's a problem with the system, though, and my frustration is misdirected. Reasons:

Cyclists often do dangerous things like go between cars.

They travel unreasonably slow for their lane.

They often do not need traffic lights.
 
This is pretty fascinating to me. I have long thought about the psychology of driving and why road rage is so prevalent and the "anonymity" of cars feels like a big part of it. I also have found that certain cars that have "aggressive styling" like BMW's with headlights that look like a furrowed brow seems to exacerbate all of this.

Whenever I do something stupid on the road I can usually trace it back to a feeling of pressure from those around me to "take action". This stems from my own frustration of being stuck behind drivers who seem to take no action and constantly defer to the others on the road.
 
In the UK here and although there are some shitty motorists about i've not had too many incidents of lunacy in the years i've been commuting. I have had several colleagues who drive ask about the camera on my lid and when i tell them it's actually a light they are surprised. So i wouldn't be surprised if many drivers give me more space because they think i have a camera. I do but it's front facing and mounted on my handlebars :)

I have a lightstrip on the back of my lid, a white/red light pod on the top of my lid, front and rear lights on my bike and a pannier on the right-hand side of my bike which psychologically make me a bit bigger and noticable and cars give me a wide berth generally. I also have a couple of cycling shower jackets that have the glass-bead coating that reflect any light hitting it which is great in winter as i glow like an alien in the boot of the Repo Man's car :)

In the winter i'm lit up like a seaside pier :D
 
They should do a study of cyclist attitudes toward pedestrians. I notice dickish cyclist behavior much more when I'm walking than when I'm driving. I particularly hate how they just ignore red lights when people are crossing the street and go the wrong way on one-way streets.
 
You mean the dudes cycling up that hill on that slow ass bike in Metro Atlanta traffic taking up an entire lane making me miss that fucking red light with the damn near 4 minute timer on it as they just casually run it because their slow asses are on a bike????

Sorry, that shit is aggravating.

Every town that supports them should give them their own lanes with rails or whatever, bikers sharing roads with motor vehicles is just stupid. Your life is at the mercy of a bunch of people who REALLY wish you weren't in their way, and people drive like lunatics down here

His Majesty said:
yeah well I hate you too car drivers
Click to expand...

you'd HAVE to hate me to get in front of me going that damn slow
 
jviggy43 said:
People on bikes want to tell you to share the road all the while not obeying the rules of the road. That's why I get frustrated with them.
Click to expand...

This in a nutshell. I will respect the biker that follows the rules, but they do stupid things that violate those rules all the time, so I don't respect them. Just the other day I was sitting at an intersection. The biker I had passed earlier catches up, and rather than getting behind me at the light, cuts over from the righthand lane and parks sideways in front of me. The light then turns green, and of course pedalpower can't get his slow ass through the intersection without holding up traffic merging onto a 40mph road. Fuck that cyclist. It pissed me off, but I didn't lay on the orn or do anything threatening to him, I just put another checkmark in the 'fuck these guys' category. Same as if you want to use a crosswalk on a bike? You gotta walk the bike across. Those are the rules. Follow. The. Rules.

I know our roads in the US suck for cyclists, but it just goes back and forth with drivers being dickheads, then bikes being dickheads, and it just pisses everyone off. I feel if there isn't a bike lane, and your two wheels can't keep up with the speed limit, then that bike shouldn't be there. All you do is hold up traffic for all the people trying to get shit done.
 
Off Duty Ninja said:
This is pretty fascinating to me. I have long thought about the psychology of driving and why road rage is so prevalent and the "anonymity" of cars feels like a big part of it. I also have found that certain cars that have "aggressive styling" like BMW's with headlights that look like a furrowed brow seems to exacerbate all of this.
Click to expand...

People in cars feel both invincible, and totally disconnected from the reality of the speeds they're doing. Go just 40mph without steel and glass surrounding you and you realise the speed

It's only really been the last 100 years or so of human history where cars have been king of the roads. I suspect once self-driving cars take off people will be able to reclaim the streets somewhat.
 
Carn82 said:
Glad that I live in The Netherlands where using your bike is the most common form of transportation, so we have the proper infrastructure for it as well.
Click to expand...

There's also probably the distances available in your country vs. the US to consider. The entirety of the Netherlands is about a third of my state, Michigan.
 
Feel like this depends on where you live, at least somewhat, if this ire at cyclists is justified. For example, when my dad used to live in Manhattan, I would see cyclists do all kinds of crazy shit, weaving between cara, ignoring traffic lights, jumping curbs, etc. However, I live in a fairly small college town now with a lot of cyclists, and 90% of them follow the rules and the community in general is more accommodating to cyclists. No problems at all with the cyclists living here, it's great that people can bike places, especially kids and teenagers. This study is really interesting though, and I'm sure one bad experience with a cyclist (or one experience just stuck behind a cyclist) is enough to make people go berserk on every cyclist. People are asshole when it comes to driving.
 
I get annoyed by how many cyclists don't follow the rules of the road except when it is convenient for them. It can be VERY dangerous when a cyclist is acting unpredictable.

I will never be mad at a law-abiding cyclist on the road, and thankfully in my area, there seems to be a growing number of them.
 
I'm mixed on them. My experience is from the UK rather than the US, and while the attitude towards cyclists from motorists tends to suck, cyclists aren't always blameless either; often they don't wear helmets, ignore the highway code, and can be a menace to pedestrians (don't dive onto the pavement because there's stationary traffic ahead of you).
 
I would like to see better infrastructure for cyclists come hand-in-hand with actually enforcing penalties for cyclist who choose to break traffic laws. Use the money from fining cyclists breaking traffic laws to fund infrastructure for cyclists.
 
LordKasual said:
you'd HAVE to hate me to get in front of me going that damn slow
Click to expand...

Hey buddy I drive a respectable 20 km/hr.

Lord of Ostia said:
Feel like this depends on where you live, at least somewhat, if this ire at cyclists is justified. For example, when my dad used to live in Manhattan, I would see cyclists do all kinds of crazy shit, weaving between cara, ignoring traffic lights, jumping curbs, etc. However, I live in a fairly small college town now with a lot of cyclists, and 90% of them follow the rules and the community in general is more accommodating to cyclists. No problems at all with the cyclists living here, it's great that people can bike places, especially kids and teenagers. This study is really interesting though, and I'm sure one bad experience with a cyclist (or one experience just stuck behind a cyclist) is enough to make people go berserk on every cyclist. People are asshole when it comes to driving.
Click to expand...

The better the biking infrastructure, the less crazy shit you will see, that seems obvious to me yeah. And yes, people in general are assholes in traffic. Try driving a car to work every day in Belgium, you'll be stuck in queus for 1-2 hours every day. So I can understand why some car drivers transform in absolutely batshit crazy lunatics.
 
The shitty infrastructure we have isn't their fault. Riding full speed through a stop sign is.
 
My hatred of cyclists comes from being a runner and all of those lance armstrong wannabe assholes doing insane speeds on a narrow trail that people are walking along with their kids. I fucking refuse to swerve out of the way of those assholes. When I see them on the road I don't get as annoyed, mostly because I live in the country and can easily pass them most of the time.
 
If bike lanes were ubiquitous (as they should be) it wouldn't be an issue. Unfortunately the reality is that bike lanes are on a minority of road ways. As a result, it's kind of hard not to get pissed off at a cyclist who's slowing you down to 15km/h on a major roadway.

I just can't imagine doing it and not feeling like a total shithead bringing traffic to a near halt behind me.
 
Dougald said:
People in cars feel both invincible, and totally disconnected from the reality of the speeds they're doing. Go just 40mph without steel and glass surrounding you and you realise the speed

It's only really been the last 100 years or so of human history where cars have been king of the roads. I suspect once self-driving cars take off people will be able to reclaim the streets somewhat.
Click to expand...

This too. It is that disconnect both with the inherent danger of driving vehicles and the disconnect from the fact that all of these objects are being controlled by other humans as prone to error as we are.

I genuinely feel that people in cars don't see other people at all, they just see objects that aren't behaving the way they should. This causes people to do all sorts of irrational things that they wouldn't likely do in say a line of people waiting to get into a movie or something. When those objects are fast and designed to look aggressive it triggers this sense even more.
 
jviggy43 said:
People on bikes want to tell you to share the road all the while not obeying the rules of the road. That's why I get frustrated with them.
Click to expand...

Basically this.

Off Duty Ninja said:
This too. It is that disconnect both with the inherent danger of driving vehicles and the disconnect from the fact that all of these objects are being controlled by other humans as prone to error as we are.

I genuinely feel that people in cars don't see other people at all, they just see objects that aren't behaving the way they should. This causes people to do all sorts of irrational things that they wouldn't likely do in say a line of people waiting to get into a movie or something. When those objects are fast and designed to look aggressive it triggers this sense even more.
Click to expand...
I promise you I see them as people. Even the bad ones.
 
It's obviously a function of location and infrastructure and behaviour.

Cycling in UK/Europe I've found that mostly the experience is fine so long as you also obey the rules of the road as a cyclist and show some consideration for cars in the right circumstances (for example as a car driver too I'll slow if approaching a narrow point to allow the car behind me to scoot through first then follow them through).

Generally I find drivers fairly considerate as they see you are too (and of course in most cases infrastructure is okay with cycle lanes etc).

But... things immediately tend to fall apart where infrastructure just isn't right for both to mix and it all feels like a fight for the same space. Luckily I've only occasionally found myself in that situation.

Bottom line for cyclists and car me is you need proper cycle lanes and infrastructure and both cyclists and car drivers need to react considerately to the other depending on circumstances.
 
Many cyclists want the protections and benefits of being a pedestrian with the benefits of being a motorist at whatever benefits them at the moment. They can't have it both ways.

Not all, but 90% of the ones I come across on the road seem have this mentality.
 
Dougald said:
People in cars feel both invincible, and totally disconnected from the reality of the speeds they're doing. Go just 40mph without steel and glass surrounding you and you realise the speed

It's only really been the last 100 years or so of human history where cars have been king of the roads. I suspect once self-driving cars take off people will be able to reclaim the streets somewhat.
Click to expand...

I agree there. People in cars feel secure, and the scary thing is that nothing is further from the truth. I am intimately aware of how fragile that metal shell is when on the road, but I am also aware that to bikers and people I'm in a 2000lb death machine. Cars are dangerous, and like anything dangerous need to be well maintained and treated with care.
 
I'll admit that cyclists annoy me when they're blocking traffic on roads that aren't designed for cyclists. Does that make me a bad person?
 
Will never defend cyclists who run red lights or who deliberately go onto busy streets when there are specific bike routes a block north and south of the busy street.
 
Dr. Benton Quest said:
I can't count the number of times I've missed a light or been scared shitless because of a cyclist. You should not be allowed to go 15 in a 45 no matter what you're driving.
Click to expand...

Not to mention 15 in a 45 with no protection whatsoever. The slightest bump could toast a bro.

More bike lanes is what we need. I find it crazy that it's not legal to ride bikes on sidewalks, better a bike hitting a pedestrian than a car hitting a bike...
 
Dude Abides said:
They should do a study of cyclist attitudes toward pedestrians. I notice dickish cyclist behavior much more when I'm walking than when I'm driving. I particularly hate how they just ignore red lights when people are crossing the street and go the wrong way on one-way streets.
Click to expand...
This happens constantly in NYC. I encounter oblivious cyclists as a pedestrian much more than oblivious drivers and it's colored my attitude for sure. It's a bike, not a road rules don't apply to me device. While driving it's less of an issue unless someone is recklessly weaving in and out of traffic.
 
I get annoyed at cyclists. Its not their fault though. Better infrastructure for them seems like it should make everyone happy. I don't believe that a vehicle that is going to top out at 10-15 mph should be sharing a lane where vehicles are going 55 mph. Seems unsafe for everyone involved.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Bricks and Minifigs scandal w/mob boss attitude.
2 3 4
162
2K
Brazen replied
First look at Lex Luthor in Man of Tomorrow
2
61
1K
KyoZz replied
Mel Gibson has unveiled the first look at “The Resurrection of the Christ”
2
77
2K
The Fartist replied
First look at Martin Scorsese’s ‘What Happens At Night’ starring Leonardo DiCaprio And Jennifer Lawrence
1
241
DKehoe replied
End of the quarter and the meeting I had at work.
21
408
EverydayBeast replied
Top Bottom