Madeleine Bonsma-Fisher, PhDAug 13, 2023
3000 kilometres on our best girl, our family vehicle and adventure partner! Seems fitting that we reached this milestone on a lovely cycling holiday on beautiful Lake Erie. Shoutout to Happy Fiets Canada for making Rocky the red HSD a part of our trip too :)
Show thread🏳️‍🌈 Bri 🌞🚴🌱✨Aug 13, 2023
@mbonsma happy to learn about Happy Fiets! What a great name. https://www.happyfiets.ca/
HAPPY FIETS

HAPPY FIETS
Show threadHyL☮️🚲🇨🇦Aug 13, 2023

@cargot_robbie @mbonsma
Wow. Thanks for telling us about #FietsCanada.
(Did you know Edmonton has an "Omafiets Mob"?)

#BikeTooter
#Fietssters
#Fietsters

Show thread🏳️‍🌈 Bri 🌞🚴🌱✨Aug 13, 2023
@HyL @mbonsma I hadn't heard of Omafiets either, what's that??
Show threadMadeleine Bonsma-Fisher, PhD
@cargot_robbie @HyL An omafiets is Dutch slang for an upright step-through city bike, translated directly it would be "grandma bike" 😉
Aug 13, 2023 at 11:34amTusky
Show threadHyL☮️🚲🇨🇦Aug 14, 2023
Yes, @cargot_robbie, @mbonsma has the correct translation. Some people call them "Dutch bikes".
A fietsster (♀️) or fietster (♂️) is someone who to uses a bike as basic transportation.
Show threadIdealistic Pragmatist Aug 14, 2023
@HyL @cargot_robbie @mbonsma not quite—a ‘fietser’ (or, more rarely, the female equivalent) is someone who’s currently riding a bicycle (“for transportation” is mostly a given, since that’s almost the only reason why anyone ever rides one there, though I suppose it would also apply to, say, a couple out for a Sunday ride) at this moment. It’s not an identity, and anyone could be one at any given moment.
Show threadIdealistic Pragmatist Aug 14, 2023
@HyL @cargot_robbie @mbonsma so, for example, if you gave someone a picture of a bunch of people using a road and said “describe the people in this photo”, the person might answer: “there’s one driver, three walkers and two ‘fietser’”—without knowing anything about whether those people do those actions habitually for transportation.
Show threadHyL☮️🚲🇨🇦Aug 19, 2023

@IPEdmonton @cargot_robbie @mbonsma fietster/sster is becoming a term used by English-speaking riders knowledgable about Dutch cycling culture & urbanism, to refer to the normal person who uses a bike as basic transportation - as opposed to the 'avid cyclist's or 'road warrior' or 'trail rider' or 'mountian biker'.

#BikeTooter
#Fietsters
#Fietssters

Show threadSam LevineAug 19, 2023
@HyL @IPEdmonton @cargot_robbie @mbonsma Could you use quaxer as the noun form of quaxing? It's gender neutral and sounds funny/cute to native english speakers.
Show threadHyL☮️🚲🇨🇦Aug 19, 2023

@SRLevine
I don't know what "quax", "quaxer" or "quaxing" mean.

@IPEdmonton @cargot_robbie @mbonsma

Show threadSam LevineAug 19, 2023
@HyL @IPEdmonton @cargot_robbie @mbonsma It's a bit of slang that spread from New Zealand that I've seen used here occasionally. Apparently there was a politician there who said no one would ever shop via biking, walking, or public transit on twitter. And people took it as a challenge and turned his name into a verb for a hashtag to mean any sort of errands run without a car. #Quaxing
Show threadHyL☮️🚲🇨🇦Sep 1, 2023
@IPEdmonton @cargot_robbie @mbonsma For example, look at this Bluesky profile name:
Show threadIdealistic Pragmatist Sep 1, 2023
@HyL I guess the reason why that usage irks me a bit is that it's the opposite of the meaning of the same word in Dutch. In Dutch, the term is very clearly NEVER an identity, because EVERYONE is a 'fietser' sometimes. You'd never, ever use it as a part of your name or in your profile, and if you called yourself that in a conversation, people would look at you sideways. And I've frankly always LIKED that about the term--it's something so everyday and ordinary that making it an identity is odd.
Show threadHyL☮️🚲🇨🇦Sep 2, 2023

@IPEdmonton in one word:
Culture

😆🚴‍♀️