Cyclists! The public thinks you're cool and normal

tomasrojo

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/green-living-blog/2010/aug/31/we-cyclists-are-so-cool

Prof Alan Tapp and a team of researchers from the University of the West of England have carried out a big piece of research asking 3,855 people for their opinions on bicycles and the people who ride them.

Most respondents consider bike riding as normal (65%) and only 7% reckon cyclists are strange. Amusingly, those who cycle the most are disproportionately likely to think others consider them weird - 24% of those who use their bike at least once a week said they believed most normal people think cyclists were "a bit odd". Which does explain the proliferation of "I'm mad, me" types one occasionally encounters in the bike lane.

Hermy

I feel so much better now!

Bluefoam

I refuse to be normal

coolbeans

I don't like cycling now (humph)

fondriest

I knew it, i knew i was normal now can someone give me a hand with this straightjacket.

happytramp

Well, I don't know what else I'm supposed to do then. I cycle up and down outside the bernard shaw all day with giant novelty glasses, wearing a womans blouse as a pair of pants and this is the thanks I get? hmmmpf. Im obviously not trying hard enough.

Captain Havoc

My friends think I'm weird and can't understand why I enjoy it so much.

Civilian_Target

The guy in the photo has the same bike as me. Does that make me cool, or a wierd, beardy Guardian reader?

Rob A. Bank

From Prof Tapp's survey :- "A heartening 69% of those questioned overall said cyclists should be taken seriously..."

Obviously they didnt read this thread !

;-)

Jawgap

Damn that Cycle to Work scheme - now everyone is in on the Cult of Lycra and it's been normalised - another reason not to vote for the Greens:)

Jawgap

He's weird - he still has the shop-supplied reflectors on the bike

Lumen

X is not normal if journalists are writing articles about how X is normal.

manwithaplan

Jawgap wrote: »

He's weird - he still has the shop-supplied reflectors on the bike

Yeah - he hasn't a clue.

Note to self: remove reflectors ASAP

HivemindXX

The author of the study has a comment near the top of the list on the Guardians web site. He says that he found it interesting how the Daily Express had a different spin on his research resulting in the headline...

CYCLISTS ARE 'SOCIAL MISFITS AND UNHAPPY', CLAIMS STUDY

rp

HivemindXX wrote: »

The author of the study has a comment near the top of the list on the Guardians web site. He says that he found it interesting how the Daily Express had a different spin on his research resulting in the headline...

CYCLISTS ARE 'SOCIAL MISFITS AND UNHAPPY', CLAIMS STUDY

"Even worse many workers think colleagues who cycle are lazier and motorists say they are miserable."
Hard to parse that, but "Motorists say they are miserable" rings true, to go by the faces on drivers I see stuck in traffic.

Jawgap

Although the Express has a mountainbiker as it's image - so maybe it's just mudpluggers who are social mis-fits and unhappy.

Roadies are probably fine.

cdaly_

rp wrote: »

"many workers think colleagues who cycle are lazier "

Nah. We're just asleep at our desks 'cos we're knackered after cycling to work...

L'Enfer du Nord

Jawgap wrote: »

He's weird - he still has the shop-supplied reflectors on the bike

Oddly that photo of someone in cycling gear reading a paper in the park reminds me of seeing nudists in the parks around Berlin reading newspapers, something incongruous about it. If he was on Dutchie with a basket, OK. But on a road bike without a back pack, how did he carry the paper to the park? was it stuffed up his jersey?

As to the wider accusation that we're normal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9GQWqYAkhM