Originally Posted by
Seattle Forrest
It isn't fear of liability that pits drivers against cyclists. It's resource contention. Everybody wants the same space on (mostly) the same roads, and drivers and cyclists want to do it differently. If bikes could do 80 mph on flat ground, nobody would care about "getting stuck" behind one of us.
I agree. Although motorcyclists get a lot of the same spite, I'm not sure it's at quite the same level.
I suspect that it has everything to do with how a slow moving vehicle reminds a motorist just how tenuous their ability to travel quickly is. Doing 45 down a barely used suburban road is very nice. Being stuck doing 5 on it while traffic crawls in front of you is more miserable than walking at half the speed. Bicycles offer one more way in which you can end up crawling down the street, or are at least perceived to do that.