It's funny, almost all my friends who are fierce pro-bike (and do things like participate in Critical Mass) are among the least safe vehicle drivers on the road. They often completely blow stop signs, perform unsafe manuvers while waiting for cross-traffic to clear so they can blow lights, randomly don't wear helmets ("Hey, where's your helmet today?" "Oh, I forgot it"), yell at cars (car drivers aren't the only ones who yell, and they seem proud of their "keying" ability).
I'm not saying that it isn't tough to be on a bike (or that car drivers are angels), I'm just saying that the holier-than-thou attitude that comes from people on bikes is laughable: I've listened to a group of bike-centric people bitch and moan about car drivers and then ride away on the wrong side of the street.
/jordan
I used to be an avid cyclist. I rode on average over 100 miles per week and only used my car for vacations and days I needed to transport heavy items. I had a BOB trailer for carrying groceries, etc. and rode in rain, heat, ice, whatever. Four broken vertebrae ended all that. I bought a full suspension rig hoping this would make it possible to continue but, no dice. I certainly don't need a handicapped sticker or parking priviledges but I now drive everywhere I go. There is no public transportation where I live. Why should driving my car be made as uncomfortable, expensive, inconvenient as possible for me Leigh? I also haven't noticed any hyperalert motorists anywhere I've been. Oblivious to their surroundings is much more common. Certainly hyperagressiveness is not in short supply.
Unlike Jordan, with very little exception, most of the cyclist I have known and ridden with all over North America were more "professional" in their approach than most drivers. There is an unfortunate tendancy among some to blow through lights that I think should be curbed however. Not wearing a helmet does not affect the operation of the bike and, while I think it's pretty dumb not to wear one, it doesn't belong on the list of operational issues. Holier-than-thou attitudes exist for motor vehicle users just as much as cyclist and both are certainly counterproductive. I cannot count the number of times I have been deliberately run off the rode, hit while at an intersection, had trash and urine thrown at me and guns pointed at me while cycling. Not one time has anyone thrown a cup of piss or empty bottles, spit on me, or opened their door into me while I was driving. I have a pretty easy time relating to cyclist who don't want to wait at an intersection for some jerk to do the same thing one more time to them. It happens to cyclists with a frequency thousands of times greater than it happens to motorists so it affects behavior. Your risk of injury is astronomically higher on a bike in the US than in a car or SUV.
I haven't tried a $5 boner pill but I really do own a musclewagon. A 1960 Ford Country Sedan with a 460 that gets about 12 MPG. Obviously not my daily driver, just a hobby for someone who likes mechanical things and has absolutely zero musical ability.
John Thornton