This presentation focuses on violence(s) in traffic space as a gendered problem. It draws on qualitative online studies and interviews with cyclists about their experiences of motorists’ violent practices, including cyclists’ negotiations of anti-cyclist discourses and their coping strategies. It follows that modal conflicts is not only a problem for cities with a low prevalence of cycling; ‘bike friendly’ cities like Copenhagen and Stockholm are also troubled by fights between cyclists and drivers (Freudendal-Pedersen 2015; Koglin 2013). Such conflicts are gendered in complex ways.
Automobility appears to be a ‘violent regime’ (Joelsson 2013), a regime that produces uncaring, oppressive and violent configurations of men and masculinity (cf. Hanlon 2009). However, there are no clear-cut gendered frameworks to be applied. Such violence cannot be understood within a binary gendered framework; there is neither clearly a typical victim position nor a gendered perpetrator position. It is argued that automobility makes it possible for certain men to perform their ‘right to the road’, including gender-identity-shaping practices, and that this has the negative effect of violating cyclists’ bodily integrity. It follows that a shift from cars to more sustainable mobilities also demands related shifts in masculinities and men’s practices in the context of transport and traffic.