Cosmoline

One thing that's dawned on me lately is how much all these cars are like simple minded herd animals. They're potentially dangerous, but with a firm hand and a few slaps they get along just fine. You just have to keep an eye on them. When I treat the cars like cattle we all seem to get along better. Indeed, I've been surprised how responsive they are to a firm hand directing them to one place or another. You just have to be consistent and clear.

So instead of "cager" I suggest we start calling the creatures cattle or dogies. And telling them to get along.

kjohnnytarr

I love it.

Newspaperguy

I prefer the term "motorists." It offers a human element in a setting where the human dimension is easily forgotten.

Too often, people will say, "that car cut me off" or "that truck ran a red light." It's more accurate to say, "that motorist cut me off."

Cars can have a dehumanizing effect, but in the end, the people piloting those machines are people, just like you and me. We minimize that human element when we refer to them as cattle or as "cagers."

Cosmoline

I actually don't think you're fully human in a car. And it's not the motorist I have problems with, it's the car. Rational people become herd animals in a car.

Bikepacker67

That is sooo weird... Lately I've entertained the exact same thoughts.
They're like the bison I had to negotiate when I worked in Yellowstone.

Platy

I like it.

littledog

Using that definition wouldn't bicyclists more accurately be called drovers?

Pepper Grinder

This is just ******** elitism. Get a life.

chephy

There is surprisingly much truth to this.

It is well-known that the psychology of a crowd is very different from the psychology of the individuals making up a crowd. Similarly, the psychology of a car does not quite seem to be the psychology of the individual driving the car. Totally weird and completely scientifically unsupported, but deep down I know it's true. Many years of anecdotal evidence.

Brian

Is that a generalization, or a stereotype? I ride bicycles, a motorcycle and own both a small economy car and a larger 4WD. Yet I am still one person, so what does that make me? Am I suddenly less human in my car? I openly express my disdain for inconsiderate motorists, incompetent motorcyclists, and clueless cyclists.

While I am very much pro-cycling in any form, I am saddened to see that some of you are so anti-car. How many of you have handicapped children, or a frail relative? How do you decide who should have a car, and who should go without? And when will you give the term "cager" a rest? I doubt the idiot that cut you off the other day while they were talking on their phone and not paying attention to where they were going would ever consider their vehicle a cage. Comfy seats, noise-reduction glass, air conditioning (personally, I would rather have the window down, even in the rain) and satellite radio - hardly a cage.

I guess what I'm after is an answer to why so many here in LCF get so worked up over cars and motorists. Enjoy your lifestyle, and stop getting so bent out of shape. If you've been riding for any amount of time, the stupid actions of motorists should now be predictable. I commute by motorcycle, and that leaves me far more exposed than while on my bicycle. But I don't complain, I just keep my eyes and ears open, and enjoy the ride.

Roody

Believe me, far fewer get worked up about cars here than they do on the other forums, especially A&S, Commuting and Road. I don't think I ever saw the word cager here until a few days ago, now there's like 17 threads about it all of a sudden. I have yet to see "JAM" used here, and that's common on several of the other forums, and much more derogatory than "cager."

In fact, I use cager and I don't mean anything derogatory by it at all. Every group has a term to describe the other humans who are not part of the group. This is just human nature. Most paleolithic societies simply called themselves "the humans." The important thing to remember, as H.S. Sullivan put it:

"Underneath it all, we are all simply more human than otherwise."

joeprim

"Get along little doggies Montana will be your new home ..."

Joe

tspoon

Extremely isolated/insulated herd animals. A seeming contradiction.

Bushman

+ 1 I agree fully, just because you ride a bike, it doesn't make you special or superior.


+ 1 well said!

bmike

Does this post really behoove a "moderator"?

Brian

Well, the term "Cager" is usually used in a derogatory manner, yet I'm willing to bet that the vast majority of the forums 87,000+ members own and drive motor vehicles. So you tell me what's appropriate, ok?

I have tried to participate to some extent all over the forums, and I'm generally unwelcome in the one forum that sees the least amount of participation.

bragi

I think it's a matter of physics. It's much easier to take it personally when an idiot does something unsafe around you, or, worse, intentionally tries to intimidate you, when his vehicle out-masses yours by a factor of 120, and has a velocity at least 4 times greater. If you experience this a few times a month, or even, in the case of some people, many times a week, a few people are naturally going to develop an attitude.

Personally, I don't hate car drivers at all; virtually every adult I know and love has a car, and most of the drivers I encounter are fairly polite. However, I think all of us would be better off if there were fewer cars, and I'm quite certain that, if you live in an urban area, you don't actually need one. I also think the quality of life of our cities would improve if there were fewer cars. Although I don't actually hate cars, I don't really much approve of them, either. That's just what I think. If you don't agree with me, that's up to you. All I ask is that you respect opinions that you don't share. (This is especially important given your role here.)

BTW, LCF is not at all the least-visited forum on this site.

CommuterRun

Okay.

When I drive, I'm a cager. As are all the other cagers.

A cage, no matter how heavily gilded, is still a cage.

And lik you, I am not anti-car nearly as much as I am pro-bike.

Dogies isn't bad, but I prefer to think of them as sheep. What a following cager sees the cager ahead get away with, they will do.

I-Like-To-Bike

Common sense behooves anybody, even moderators. Should moderators abandon it in deference to the tender sensibilities of the "cager/cager lifestyle" bashers of LCF?

Nachoman

Stepford moderators.

bmike

But Brian's post is sort of like going to a sports bar and being upset that Victory Garden isn't on the tellie...

Brian

Oh, so LCF is about car-bashing? As a reminder, you guys were surprised to see 57 people in LCF at one time. While I would love to see this very small minority grow, it won't happen by bashing the rest of the forums.

littledog

Better a drover than dogie any old day I say. How about calling those in a four wheeled (or more) steel cage prisoners? Really I don't want to call them anything disrespectful myself. But if I was going to do that I think prisoner would be OK.

Brian

But they have the freedom to go anywhere they wish. Hardly prisoners.

Cosmoline

Yippee kay-yay Heck, with the leather saddle my bike does sort of seem like an alloy horse.

Do they? Apart from off road vehicles they're stuck on drivable roads, and in any other circumstances become bogged down and die. Anyplace I can't ride my bike I can walk it. We'll see who's getting around better after the next nine pointer.