I'm glad the issue of aggressive and incorrigible drivers has come up. They are certainly out there, and it makes sense to be aware and reminded of their existence. But I do think these drivers are only a very small percentage -- an important small percentage, and not to be ignored or forgotten, but nonetheless a small percentage.
Inattentive drivers are probably much more common. Some drivers just don't notice you; or when they finally do notice, it's too late. I've almost taken out a couple of cyclists this way myself. In one case, I was able to swerve at the last fraction of a second, when I finally noticed him. At seventy miles per hour, reaction time alone takes up a lot of distance. He was about one third of the way out into the lane, and it would have been a very serious collision or a fatality. In the other case, I didn't see the cyclist until it was too late for me to do anything about it. Fortunately, the cyclist himself took strong evasive action, and was able to avoid a head-on by inches.
No doubt some of these reports (by drivers, saying they never saw the cyclist) are simply true. And there is also no doubt that some of them are not. There is no clear way to determine the percentages here, but I suspect that a strong majority genuinely never saw the cyclist, or saw the cyclist only when it was too late. We've all experienced moments of inattention, and have missed seeing something or other (probably much more often than we realize, since this often goes undetected or unnoticed).
Heinz Stücke describes a collision he had in Germany when a driver ran right into him and apologized immediately, with real concern, saying he just didn't see him. He also describes another cyclist's very similar collision in Germany. Both descriptions are in the Friedel Grant interview with Heinz:
www.travellingtwo.com
Jardine, the in the last days of his TransAm tour (especially on Day 54) describes how he modified his assumption that cars coming from behind were seeing him. He learned this the hard way, but has enabled others to benefit from his experience by sharing details of what happened.
http://www.rayjardine.com/adventures...nsAm/index.htm