I'm nearly at a point where I can just tune them (drivers/cagers) out as almost a background noise.

I still laugh when I do a hand signal for a right turn and a driver passing by thinks I'm waving "hello" and then waves back at me. I've seen a few people around town do sort of a "heil hitler" to show they are going straight, so I do that sometimes also.

Which brings up another point on both sides of the argument.. As a cyclist, when I first started cycling in an urban environment, I had no idea it was illegal to ride on the sidewalk, I didn't know how to signal a turn, I didn't know about blinky lights for visibility. Now this may seem like common sense things to everyone in here, but a lot of new cyclists just do not have the knowledge. Maybe the proper advocacy and education is not there yet, who knows. The only "education" we seem to get are police crackdowns and ticketing.

As a driver, hand signals are a blip of your driver's ed training, quickly forgotten like mirror checks, speed limits and courtesy/respect/patience. Also there is the assumption that roads are made for cars and only cars, or that car licensing fees somehow pay for road construction (when in most cases they don't even come close). I hand signal hoping to be understood but I always assume that the driver has no idea what I mean and approach any interaction cautiously yet confidently (no swerving, predictable movements, etc).

And can we stop talking about "illegal aliens"?

In any case, I find when someone makes a comment like that about cyclists in general like "they're all transients!", you can just as easily make a comparison to them about car drivers. Just about anyone who can breathe is allowed to obtain a license. Visit some poor rural community, everyone has a car somehow (or how would they get to Wal Mart?). If all cyclists were transients, that could make all car drivers rusted out no muffler Pontiac Grand Am driving trailer trash.