You encounter this, or at least I do, all the time. Whenever I ride through a blizzard or the rain and people see me they always say, “You rode through that!?” Even more generally when I tell people that I ride through the road they tell me how brave I am and that they can never do what I do. I used to try and refute them, but now that it happens constantly I just reply, “Yes I am awesome aren’t I.” So what causes them to have this fear of cycling? In an article by Dave Horton a sociologist from the UK, froward to my by Bert, he discusses this very topic. Now I have to admit that I did not read the whole thing because it is very long and my brain does not like to focus on things for more then five minutes, but here is a nice quote that sums it all up:
“Fear of cycling constitutes a significant emotional barrier to cycling. Ironically, this fear is partly produced through attempts to make cycling safer. For as long as cycling remains something to fear, it remains a marginal and marginalised practice. The constant cultural construction of cycling as dangerous justifies the continued spatial marginalisation of cycling practice, which then enables the continued construction of the cyclist as other, a stranger pedalling on the margins. The ideological, spatial and cultural marginality of cycling are continuously reproduced, together.”
Albany Bicycle Coalition 