When I was living in a more urban location, I had the same attitude you do. However, the largest city in the four counties surrounding me has 130,000 people, most of whom stay in the city limits 99% of the time. The surrounding county has only a few tens of thousands of people and where I do most of my riding I am encountering the same thousand people on a near daily basis. I may not be able to prove it, but putting a human face on one cyclist for them seems worthwhile. In fact, I was having a devil of a time with the local log trucks until I started smiling and waving to the drivers every time I saw them. The change occurred over a two week period and was like night and day. I'm not trying to play cop, I just try to get them to understand that I have a right to use our roads and to make a little human connection. My schedule is flexible enough to allow me to do this, so don't worry yourself about my not having the time.