More than half of Australia’s motorists think cyclists are “not completely human” and liken them to cockroaches, a national study by universities in Queensland and Victoria has found.
The study says there is a link between this dehumanisation of cyclists and deliberate acts of aggression towards them by motorists, such as driving too close or using their car to block a cyclist.
According to lead author Alexa Delbosc from Monash University’s institute of transport studies, more than 440 participants were asked to rate cyclists on a graph that depicted insects and humans. Around 55 per cent of motorists rated cyclists as “not completely human”.
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