More on “Cyclists” versus “People Who Ride Bikes”

A couple weeks ago I posted an opinion piece entitled “The Last Thing Toronto Needs is More Cyclists” and attempted to make the point that any Torontonian should not be labeled, stereotyped or pigeonholed based on the type of transportation they like to use.

Photo by MBeauchamp on Flickr

The post fostered much discussion, both among people who understood what I was saying and those who thought I was saying that cycling advocates or people who eat-live-sleep bikes are not needed (I suspect these people may have just skimmed the post?) … when what I was in fact saying was that regular, ordinary “people who ride bikes” are more powerful than people who choose to label themselves as “cyclists”.

Cycling advocates are very important in the pursuit of better and more extensive cycling infrastructure… and here in Toronto, nobody does it better than the Toronto Cyclists Union and the Toronto Coalition for Active Transportation.   They have a presence at City Hall, reach out to groups across the city, and generally are involved in policy stuff that regular non-advocates do not have time for.

My post “The Last Thing Toronto Needs is More Cyclists” made the point that the label of “cyclist” is not only a loaded one (media portrayals of cyclists in Toronto often involve mentions of rule-breaking and self-righteousness) but inaccurate (since most people who ride bikes in Toronto are also pedestrians, motorists and transit users) and that it is harmful to the promotion of cycling in Toronto to use it… because the vast majority of cyclists in Toronto do not identify themselves as such.

The following infographic shows the numerical ratio between “cyclists” and “people who ride bikes” and asks what group obviously would have more influence.   We’ve used the approximate number of members of the Toronto Cyclists Union (which does an excellent job of cycling advocacy) as a rough estimate of how many people self-identify themselves as cyclists.  These ~1000 cyclists should be commended for paying to join an organization with the purpose of lobbying for cycling infrastructure improvements. We’ve also used the 2009 City of Toronto survey which identifies dedicated and occasional users of bicycles in the city for utilitarian and recreational purposes.

INFOGRAPHIC: BY THE NUMBERS

Essentially, the label of “cyclist” is helpful because it’s a form of identification and unification… but it’s also a hinderance, as it allows mainstream media and society to lump us all into the same group and marginalize us as a monolithic group instead of the diverse and varied individuals we are.

Copenhagenize makes this point very well with the comparison of bicycle afficionados with vacuum afficionados… sure there are some, but there are far more people who simply find bicycles (like vacuums) a very useful tool to help make their lives easier and/or more fun:

We all have a vacuum cleaner, we’ve all learned how to use it and we all use it. But we don’t go around thinking about our vaccum in the course of a day. Only when the bag is full do we roll our eyes and sigh. Kind of like when our tire is flat/chain is loose and we chuck our bike into the bike shop.

We don’t have a ’stable’ of vacuum cleaners. We don’t buy vacuum cleaning clothes from our LVS or wave at other ‘avid’ vacuum cleaning ‘enthusiasts’ whilst we clean. The relationship to our bicycles is the same as to our vacuum cleaners. They’re both merely incredibly effective and useful tools for making our daily lives easier.

- Copenhagenize

What do you think?  Is it better for all people who ride bikes in Toronto to be lumped into the “cyclists” label… or is it better for them to just be people who happen to sometimes (or always) use a fun, green, cheap way to get around the city?