To be Seen as a Person

The latest issue of CityCycling, the online magazine for cycling in the city, of Great Britain, has an interesting article on the issue of Sharing the Road:

See me? So starts the Scottish Executive advertisement attempting to educate us to see the person not the label. Look once, look twice, think bike. Are we seen as a label as we travel by bike? Out on the roads we go, hoping to be seen as we enter the battleground that is the road network. It is 'us' and 'them'' whoever us or them may be.

Tin can terrorists! Lycra Louts! Motons! B****y cyclists! It is convenient and easy to assign labels. It dehumanises, categorises as something other, something alien, something we do not need to consider beyond the label we have applied.

Go on, admit it. You have shouted at other vehicles, as have I. We abuse the carapace, ignoring the content. It is very different when we know the person inside. "I'm sorry, I didn't recognise you" as one of your work colleagues shows contrition for treating you like a (spits) cyclist, or as I apologise for a more assertive than usual piece of traffic jamming. Being seen as a person rather than an object is surely key to enhancing your interaction with our fellow travellers. But being recognised as human is not enough. Tribalism is rife. Whether it be Celtic or Rangers, pedal power or petrol, if it is the other tribe then they do not matter.

Read the rest, in Two Tribes Go to War by The Cyclologist.