Thanks, but I am human and will be wearing my bike helmet

This report has been doing the rounds about people perceiving cyclists wearing safety gear as less human. I wanted to go to the original article so that I didn’t get any of the media’s spin, but it turns out there wasn’t a lot of spin. But let’s start at the beginning.

Delbosc and colleagues (2019) found that rates of dehumanization of cyclists predicted rates of aggressive driving behaviours toward cyclists. In other words, individuals who see cyclists as being less human also reported higher rates of aggressive behaviour towards cyclists. This, if I’m honest is disturbing. Any form of dehumanizing is horrendous. It’s a behaviour often associated with actions like racism, sexism, or classism. It builds on attitudes that someone who is say female is less than. Where they are less than may include areas such as intelligence or complex emotions. And it leads to actions like ignoring them, mistreating them, or deliberately harming them.

All reasons for dehumanizing a person or population are just wrong and I just don’t get it. And despite having strange run ins with drivers, it didn’t occur to me that this might be part of what influences how people treat me as a cyclist. At the same time, I can see where this could be the reason behind some of those strange interactions.

Limb and Collyer (2023) wanted to investigate this dehumanization further by questioning what impact safety gear had on the level of dehumanization. They found that safety gear including both helmets and safety vests increased the amount of dehumanization. Yep, that’s right. You can wear a baseball hat but not a cycling helmet. And definitely leave your reflective vest at home if you want respect out there.

This creates a potential dilemma for cyclists. The safety gear is supposed to increase visibility (vest) and prevent injury (helmet). But, if that gear then increases the likelihood of experiencing aggression then that increases the risks.

To me, the solution is obviously not putting the safety gear away. The solution lies deeper. How do we change the way people think so that a human is always viewed as a human no matter what race or gender they are, or safety gear they wear?