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news
are you a cyclist.pngWhat is a cyclist and… are you one?
Comments by Sir Bradley Wiggins have raised the question of what it takes to be a 'cyclist' is riding a bike enough to qualify you as a cyclist or is more required - like a British Cycling membership card?
> Wiggins: London cyclists need to stick to the law
According to Oxford Dictionaries, a “cyclist” is “a person who rides a bicycle.” But the country’s most famous cyclist appears to suggest an even narrower definition – perhaps even implying that he or she must also be a member of British Cycling.
He said that people on bikes who commit offences such as riding through a red light “are termed under the phrase ‘cyclist’ but they’re not cyclists as such, they are not membership holders of British Cycling.”
The ins-and-outs apart of the wider points Wiggins was making – and his words have attracted plenty of comment here and elsewhere – he does raise an interesting philosophical point; what is a “cyclist”?
Is it enough simply to use pedal power to get around, or do you need to have certain competences, to be a member of some organisation before you can truly call yourself one?
Or does the act of thinking of yourself as a cyclist - metaphorically affixing that six letter label - to the inside of your head automatically confer 'cyclist' status?
It’s the kind of thing you might see in forum postings, or in below-the-line comments to news articles on websites such as this one that report on cyclists breaking the law whether traffic-related, or some other type of offence.
You don’t have to wait too long for someone to point out that the person in the article wasn’t actually a “cyclist” but just someone who happened to be on a bike.
Many will point out that it’s wrong an entire class of people get tarred with the same brush due to the actions of a few – the “all cyclists jump red lights” mentality some motorists hold, for example.
But the fact remains that to most non-riders, people on bikes are a pretty homogenous bunch, and “cyclists” is what they call them; no-one ever seems to suggest that a motorist committing a string of offences shouldn’t be called a “driver.”
So, are you a cyclist? And how would you define what it takes to be one – someone on two wheels (or a unicycle, or a trike), or does it take something else and if so, what? Let us know in the comments below.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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60 comments
If you want other people to do your thinking for you then you are free to do so, I don't give a damn about laws, I care about people and the environment and choose to make my decisions accordingly. Blindly follwing laws is a bad idea.
You don't give a damn about laws, but care about people and the environment. Right.
Other people doing my thinking for me - i.e. creating laws - is what happens when people like you feel free to make their own decisions instead of acting like responsible adults.
Is this a news story or just a bit of page padding....
Yours,
Phil Space
I'm pretty sure it's news if the UK's best known cyclist suggests that his definition of a cyclist is whether you're a card carrying member of British Cycling or not. Or at least it is to cyclists.
…Hang on! Maybe THAT'S the definition - whether you think it's news or not
I live in China, (Qingdao) and I'm surrounded by people on bikes.
I'm thinking it's similar to what I say about the most of the locals on their bikes.
They can ride a bike, but they don't know how to ride.
I haven't got the best bike handling skills, but I am far more safer on my bike then they are.
Just because they can make the bike go forward, doesn't mean they have the skills, nor the want, to be on a bike everyday.
Might be a little philosophical but to me cycling is a mindset and an approach, to other people that ride bikes and to other road users. Enjoying the space, the fresh air, the social aspects of a group ride with like minded people.
There are lots of poeple that ride bikes for different reason. I have witnessed fashion victims, lycrad up MAMILS riding like choppers in and around large groups, shouting for a right of passage as if they own the road. Not being aware of those around them or the need to let others know there is a parked car or pothole or drain cover, not letting people know what is going on chopping and changing lines, cutting people up. I often feel these will be the same choppers that tailgate and flash when they are in their fashion victim, perceived to be prestige German cars and they feel they are being delayed.
Strava warriors for whom a 100m segment is a challenge, really get a life and go and do a TT, no segment should be less than 5 miles.
These people may be on a bike but they have no sense of the responsibility, the respect, the brotherhood and I would probably not consider them to be cyclists merely people that use cycles.
Maybe it's like 'artist' - you are one if you say you are.
But it doesn't mean you're any good.
Qualify good please.
What's a cyclist that's not any good, one that keeps falling off? Accidentally cycles backwards sometimes? Accelerates instead of brakes sometimes?
So does CTC not count then?
So despite 4 bikes (currently), thousands of miles a year and the requisite metal plate in my collar bone, Sir Bradley doesn't think I am a cyclist? I will restrain from suggesting what groups I might consider him a member of, or not.
Who the heck wants to know that and what for? I ride my bicycle and I don't care what people call me in doing so. I don't ride it to obtain a name for that.
So since cyclist going through red lights is apparently the biggest issue on the roads today, when are they phasing out the car operated lights that don't change until s big metal box arrives? Why do I need to be accompanied through the junction by a motor vehicle?
This infrastructure only reenforces red light jumping.
Move to France, drive your car and you're sat there with no traffic as the sensors don't exist. Every one has to either wait or jump the light.
Lights work on timers then? Which is fine, same for everyone. But some lights here will never change without a car. How long to wait? 5 minutes? 10? An hour?
My steel bike seems to be able to trigger the sensors on the lights at the end of my road. I need to do some more checks to be sure.
I definitely trigger my local side-road lights during my commute; I've been putting that down to the 100kg lump that is me, my bike and my work gear.
Pretty certain there are some that I don't. Tempted to test this by occupying the sensor space at busy times to see if I can hold everyone up.
It's not weight, but usually either an induction loop or movement sensors. OK, maybe the latter... I've set off some speed awareness signs...
On one of my regular routes, there is a stretch of road which is cyclist only. At the end there is a traffic light, with a sensor. I'm a big lad, but that sensor doesn't register my presence. It's a busy junction, so many cyclists take to the footpath to reach the push button on the crossing just round the corner.
Pity no one thought to replace the sensor with a push button.
Cyclist is an individual using a bike often and regularily, in case you have a problem to work it out, Sir
I'm one, are you?
I am. But mostly cos of the insurance, CRC and Halfords discount. #shallow
You get CRC discount as a member?
Wiggins said: "Traffic lights are there for a reason. Jumping traffic lights ... you get run over by traffic coming the other way. The next morning that’s another cyclist that’s died. They are termed under the phrase ‘cyclist’ but they’re not cyclists as such, they are not membership holders of British Cycling."
Who knew? Being a member of British Cycling makes you a real cyclist.
I got my first road bike back in '62. I've done countless thousands of miles since then. I don't jump traffic lights and try to observe the highway code at all times, not because I'm a do-gooder, but for my own safety. However, according to Wiggins, I'm not a cyclist as such because I have never felt the need to become a member of British Cycling.
I don't lump myself in with every other cyclist, or, for those of you not members of British Cycling, people on bikes. I don't consider them representative of me or me of them.
Is it the case that not one member of British Cycling ever jumps a light, or is Wiggins just trying to boost their membership?
"Or does the act of thinking of yourself as a cyclist - metaphorically affixing that six letter label - to the inside of your head automatically confer 'cyclist' status?"
7 letter label. 6 would be cyclis.
You don't need to be a helmet member of British Cycling to be a cyclist, apart from in the competitive sense. However simply riding a bicycle shaped object also does not make you a cyclist. In my head at least there is a difference between cyclists and wheeled pedestrians.
Thought Brad's comments are quite funny in light of his reaction at the TdF when asked about doping. He didn't like being lumped in with a bunch of people that cheated and couldn't see why he had to prove he was innocent.
The guy gets paid to ride a bike, not for talking, and it is obvious why.
His definition is wrong and unhelpful. But it's something that we're all guilty of to an extent. Where we see a story about a yob on a bike we tend to try and rationalise them out of our group.
For me his comment about who is a cyclist is more worrying than his belief that I should expect to be treated in accordance with how others view my sub group.
I don't think he's saying or implying we *deserve* to be treated like that, but alas that is the reality - and in that part he's right. Works in all sorts of group scenarios, cyclists aren't exempt from it, probably not a group on Earth that doesn't have an unwelcome but vocal proportion afflicted by it either - unfortunately the only surprise is that it's still a surprise to some.
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