The fit of bicycles into large city traffic, generally dominated by motor vehicles, gives rise to numerous tensions and challenges throughout the day. Scenes where drivers and cyclists get into road disputes are unfortunately common on the streets of large cities where micromobility, represented by bicycles and electric scooters, is gaining an increasing presence.
Establishing whether people who drive a motor vehicle are better drivers than cyclists or vice versa is a difficult question to resolve. It is also not easy to find out if, in general, individuals assigned to one of these two groups are better people than those who belong to the other group. However, a study based on data collected by the German research institute GESES is responsible for answering this last question.
In order to examine this issue, the researchers relied on annual surveys carried out among a representative group of the German population during the period between 2014 and 2019. The study was based on four factors to define the common good: participation politics, social participation, neighborhood solidarity and helping neighbors. The result of the study depends on the involvement of drivers and cyclists in these facets.
The results, published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology, a journal that publishes multidisciplinary works in the field of Environmental Psychology, highlight that drivers are less interested than cyclists in these four issues. “Cycling instead of driving is positively associated with orientation toward the common good,” the report notes.
The researchers came to this conclusion after studying a few variables, such as home ownership, personal income, education, and gender. The study reveals that cyclists, as well as pedestrians, interact directly with the environment, which is not the case with drivers, who are almost completely isolated from it.
The design of cars is one of the reasons that, according to researchers, leads to a significant decrease in the way drivers interact with the environment. Inside a vehicle - add Mimi Sheller and John Urry, authors of the study - it is difficult to establish a connection with what happens outside of it. For example, it is evident that car passengers do not perceive the typical sounds and smells of the city with the same intensity as cyclists.
The study highlights that urban elements such as buildings and characteristic objects are reduced to a two-dimensional representation when observed through the windshield. The researchers add that, by car, interaction with the environment is reduced to the point of origin and destination. The only exception is breaks caused by traffic lights and traffic jams.
The researchers' work provides an interesting conclusion. If cities allocated more resources to creating appropriate infrastructure to promote micromobility, it would not only reduce air and sound pollution levels, but would also result in an improvement for society as a whole.
