The idea that my relatively slow-moving 225 pounds of bike and rider could ever effectively “share” insufficient space with a 4,000 pound vehicle is probably folly from the get-go regardless of how careful or courteous either party may be. I don’t know how you are when driving a car. I know how I am. I’m in my shell. I’m in the Batmobile. I’m already feeling isolated and empowered and restricted all at the same time.
My point is that it’s not really about “us” versus “them” when it comes to cars and bikes. Most of us who cycle also drive cars. We’re all “them” if we’re honest about it. So, while a cyclist may well be able to put themselves in a driver’s shoes, it’s far less likely that a driver can or will put themselves in a cyclist’s shoes. I highly doubt that we are going to fix this problem with public safety campaigns, good intent and pleas for good behavior. As I see it, asking a cyclist and a driver to share the road is like asking fish and cats to just get along. We truly don’t understand each other and one of us is fully capable of rendering the other dead in a very quick and one-sided manner. We might truly live best in totally separate elements.
I totally disagree with the premise the author presents here; as an avid cyclist, I am very aware of other cyclists on the road when I am driving, and make all efforts to ensure that those cyclists feel that I am sharing space freely with them.
As a frequent passenger in the cars of others', I also make an effort to ensure that the driver is aware of cyclists on the road and treat those cyclists well. Frankly, it takes so little effort for a motorist to "enable" a cyclist, that it is shameful that fellow humans cannot manage to be a touch more altrustic toward human powered vehicles that pollute less, require less foreign oils, and leave more open parking spaces available for those that chose to use motorized transport.
The amount of effort required to drive is scant by comparison to the effort to propel one's self at decent speed on a pedal bike, such that motorists should feel no burden in sharing the road; it is only selfishness that often causes the conflict that some motorists feel with regard to "sharing the road" with fellow humans who chose to use pedalbikes.