Are you a ‘cyclist’ or a ‘person who cycles’? How language helped Seattle overcome its ‘bikelash’

How about just changing every 'cyclist' to 'driver who left his car and took his bike instead to help ease congestion'...

So:

Cyclist jumps red light

to:

Driver who left his car at home and took his bike instead to ease congestion jumps red light.

Already you feel less rage and are filled with nothing but sympathy.

What we really need is some kinda rogue Al Qaida/ISIS EMP strike rendering most cars dead...even Di2 (I'm willing to sacrifice), then cyclists will become heroes over night

Oh how I wish for roads without cars.

I particularly like the "Person driving a car hit the..."

I find it particularly annoying when our local paper always talks about "cyclists" in collisions, but "cars." As if the people driving them had nothing to do with it. I've called them out on it on Twitter every time I see it but never get a response (which is odd, because I always do if I talk to them about anything else).

I lived and worked in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. As you can only drive for 3 months on a UK licence I had to sit a Nova Scotian driving test. I bought their equivalent of their highway code. It was called "sharing the road" as it's the first thing a new driver normally reads I thought that was a great way for drivers to start out. I have to say that Nova Scotian drivers are some of the best and politest I have ever encountered.

I think it's also interesting how often someone on this site suggests that someone isn't a cyclist after they've done something stupid or criminal, but just a "person on a bike".

"Vigilante cyclist" seems to be a popular phrase at the moment but I'm not sure how often you see a 'cyclist' breaking the law to take revenge on a perceived offender

Some journalistic rigour around that phrase would be nice

You know what really helps? Not wearing sunglasses! If they can see your eyes, they can see the person. Seems to work for me.

As an aside, I regularly pass a guy on my evening commute wearing shades in the dark ????

so will Road.cc be following their lead?

On that cheat sheet, I particularly like the switch of "active transportation" to "healthy transportation". I wonder how effective this would be in making such modes more appealing or better supported. I like it, but some people might be more strongly automatically inclined against something described as healthy than something described as active. I'm not sure I've ever said "active transportation", but if I find myself having a conversation in which it would be appropriate, I'll try to remember to say "healthy transportation" instead and see if it gets a reaction.

It does sound like an outbreak of common sense* - I'll put the pitchforks away

* I think ' common sense' should be re-branded also, as its just not common anymore. Perhaps 'Rare and endangered sense' might be better?

That cheat sheet, or a British version, should be permanently displayed somewhere in the site. Excellent.

I like this, careful use of language without being ludicrous. I've always tried to avoid language that presents the cyclist (sorry... people on bikes) as the outsider. I'll bear their guidance in mind in the future.

Consciously, deliberately and effectively avoiding adding to the 'us and them' scenario! Thumbs up ! Humanising the whole scenario, also thumbs up ! I really hope that some of that experience rubs off over here.

I like this.
Local rags, whenever describing , for example, some scumbag who has mugged a little old lady and then fled on a bicycle always headline the story
"Cyclist Mugs Little Old Lady"

They dont say 'Pedestrian Mugs Little Old Lady' if the perp was on foot. Or bankrobbers who escape in a car dont become 'Drivers Rob Bank'

It really grinds my gears

It's nice to start descriptions of people with the word 'people'. I think we can acknowledge most people are 'people' at least. 'People' is a great world. Full marks for 'people'.