Ultimately, we need to remember that in the end, no matter what your mode, WE ARE PEOPLE. Human beings.

This is especially important when reporting on crashes and injuries. These are people hurting other people. Not accidents. Not one mode vs. another. People.

When I write about people and modes, I tend to mix up my language for the sake of readability. I’m trying both. People in Cars or Drivers. People on bikes and bike riders. I think it’s especially important to emphasize the people-before-labels aspect when we are talking about equity or justice.

Sometimes, it can be useful to galvanize and create solidarity around a label or identity. Something great happens when groups proudly identify themselves around a commonality, in order to organize and implement changes.

Ultimately, we’re more successful in changing attitudes when we make personal connections to people who oppose us. That’s reason enough to make more conscious language decisions.

@Nick: This semantic argument about Driving versus Riding is making a big assumption. I would posit that the word “driving” is a legacy of the horse-and-carriage setup. People don’t say they “drive” motorcycles, either.

I see people act the in Chicago on the lakefront path. We don’t call them cyclists. We call them “pathletes.” There is no place for that kind of behavior on our team’s ride while we exercise our legal right to the road, legally. 2 abreast or single where required. We are also no drop for the first 25 miles to Highland Park, so that those new to the sport may experience the full joy of a club ride without the hammer dropping first thing.

Stop generalizing roadies. There are dickheads to be found using all forms of transportation.

I’m sure you mean well but the “Kumbaya moment” you are advocating is a long way off, at least in my neck of the woods. We’ve got “cyclists” in NYC who like to ride in the loop on Central Park in pacelines at 20+ MPH and will scream at people with the right of way–including pedestrians and little kids on bikes–to get out of their way. Not just at 6 a.m. when its arguably acceptable for them to do it, but on weekend mornings in relatively fair weather. These guys are more responsible than the delivery “cyclists” for giving cycling a bad rep. I’m not going to defend them or even associate myself with them by using the same term to describe myself as I use for them. (Out of courtesy, I won’t publish here what I do call them ).

Ron

One of my favourite turns of phrase has to do with the VERBS we often use. People say “riding a bike” and “driving a car”; these two I routinely reverse to indicate that a person is actually the driving force behind a bicycle but a person in a car uses no effort.

The words I tend to use to describe myself change depending on the context and what detail of bicycle culture I am trying to emphasise. My favourites are ‘driver’, used when I am trying to emphasise the legal equality between cars and bikes, and ‘pedestrian’ (despite its latin root in pedester, this term carries a derogatory meaning) when I want to emphasise the practical and ontological but not legal equivalency between people travelling by foot and by…foot? Cyclists are just pedestrians on wheels, I say.

There’s an interview with Mikael from copenhagenize.com at situp-cycle.com in which he says, “There are no cyclists in Copenhagen. There are half a million people riding bicycles but that’s just a tool between your legs that helps you get to work.” He then compares the bicycle to a vacuum cleaner. Check it out.

As a “cyclist” I find such lame excuses for breaking vehicle law damaging to the cause of advancing bicycling for transportation and recreation

Biker, of course, brings up an image of a pack of large men on harleys.

Like it or not, words matter. Maybe not to us here talking amongst ourselves in a safe space, but out there where bike riding for any reason at all is largely considered weird, unnecessary and even provocative, the word “cyclist” does have a dehumanizing, one-term-fits-all effect. I’m not fond of “pedestrian,” for the same reason, and I suppose “driver” or “motorist” could just as easily be said to insulate a person-who-drives from his or her actions behind all that steel and glass.

I don’t know what the answer is, but it’s myopic and naive to belittle the discussion.

I do have a problem with the media equating ‘cyclist’ with ‘activist’ and implying that people only ride a bike to send some kind of political, environmental, or lifestyle message.

Never a mention that it’s almost always faster, healthier, more enjoyable, and cheaper to go by bike.

This is too bad. It’s a fun sport, one that has it’s share of problems, of course. There are group rides out there that are horrifyingly rude and clueless. But there are other that are paragons of good behavior.

The sport also does a lot of good for cycling, or riding, or bi-cycling, or whatever the hell you want or don’t want it to be called [shaking head].

My team is a fantastic grass roots organization that coaches woman’s and juniors development programs (including World’s Silver Medalist Rebecca Much and Paralympian Greta Neimanas) in addition and top national level elite squad (Reid Mumford of Kelly Benefits domestic team), and is an integral partner with the Active Transportation Alliance, the largest cycling (among other modes, as well) advocacy non-profit of it’s kind in the country. We do a lot of good. And we need sponsors just like any other team. And those sponsors do a lot of good in turn by giving us money to race and been good members of the Chicago community. And we repay those sponsors by wearing our kits so their logos can be seen.

So please spare all of us your egalitarian, working class hero act. Judge not and lead by example. Because we all know you’ve run stop signs, too.