A bicycling commuter has been called a “gutter bunny” since at least 1995. The term is a jocularly derisive expression that was first popular with mountain bikers, but is now in common use.
Google Groups: rec.bicycles.off-road
OFF-ROAD BIKE SLANG wanted by author
Shaun C. Murray
Mar 28 1995, 12:03 pm
(...)
One I heard yesterday which is going straight into my dictionary is “Gutter Bunny” for a commuter cyclist.
Google Groups: rec.bicycles.off-road
OFF-ROAD BIKE SLANG summary
Jerry Dunn
Apr 5 1995, 1:00 am
(...)
gutter bunny n. a bicycling commuter.
9 May 1996, St. Paul (MN) Pioneer Press, “Cyclers gear up for big day of fuel saving,” pg. 1D:
They’re called “gutter bunnies.” They’re the cyclists you see cranking along the snowbanks every morning in January, huffing home sweating bullets in August, and pedaling off to work, come rain, shine and everything in between.
Newsweek magazine
June 16, 1997
By CARLA KOEHL and LUCY HOWARD with bureau reports
BUZZWORDS
IT TAKES MORE THAN 10 speeds to bike off-road. When hitting the trail this summer, you’d better have a handle on your mountain-biker lingo:
(...)
Gutter bunny: Someone who commutes by bicycle
Google Books
Slang:
The authoritative topic-by-topic dictionary of American lingoes from all walks of life
By Paul Dickson
New York, NY: Pocket Books
1998
Pg. 231:
gutter bunny. (mountain biking) A bicycling commuter.
Urban Dictionary
gutter bunny
I.e. Bicycle Commuters.
They’re the cyclists you see cranking along the snowbanks every morning in January, huffing home sweating bullets in August, and pedaling off to work, come rain, shine and everything in between. … refer to themselves as. May have originally started as a disparaging remark mountain bikers used to refer to commuters as but it has now been accepted.
(...)
by bayamus Aug 14, 2009
Google Books
The World’s Best Parks, Trails, Streets, and Techniques
By Paul Mason
Mankato, MN: Capstone Press
2011
Pg. 30:
gutter bunny someone who cycles to work or school
the chainlink
What’s a Gutter Bunny?
Posted by Krista Homiak on July 7, 2010 at 11:43pm
I shot a video asking cyclists what they thought a gutter bunny is in reference to a bicycle term and got some pretty funny answers.
Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.
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Above, Big Apple Corner at 54th Street and Broadway in Manhattan. Google Maps. Stolen and missing, 2021-2024.
Above, John J. Fitz Gerald, from the Aug. 15, 1931, Binghamton (NY) Press, pg. 14.
Listen to Robert Emmerich introduce "The Big Apple," a hit song from 1937. Music written by Bob and performed by Tommy Dorsey's Clambake Seven with Bob on piano. Lyrics written by Buddy Bernier and sung by Edythe Wright. Audio provided by Dorothy Emmerich.
Also listen to a 1937 "The Big Apple" song by Ozzie Nelson and his Orchestra. See a 1929 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald and a 1931 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald.
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