HH, Now that I've slept on it I feel I have a very good take on what happened.

1. I stopped behind two cars at a red light, nearly directly behind them. Lane was a narrow lane, but opened up wider toward intersection.
2. Car pulled up behind me, driver clearly saw me as they stopped behind me. I had turned just after they stopped and made face contact.
3. We waited for light to turn. Driver became impatient, most likely egged on by the two other young passengers jammed into the small bench seat in front. I can just imagine: "Dude, pass this idiot, what the hell is is doing in the road anyway"
4. Driver notices he can squeeze by me as the cars in line to his left are, well, a bit too far left. He turns wheels to move left over the lane line and turns head to watch cars on his left to get as close as possible to fit in the narrow gap between me and the cars to his left.
5. He is focused on getting thru, watching the 'hard' object to his left and only partially aware of me in his peripheral vision if at all.
6. Passengers must be fully aware of what is happening, but don't give a rats ass, they probably think its funny he is about to push into me. I am certain that there is know way the two extra sets of eyes did not notice me in the path of the vehicle (I wear hi vis and have two sets of very bright flashing lights, it was daylight). They obviously chose not to say anything to the driver. Worse case the driver actually knew he was going to push into me.

No need for me to say any more - all the rest is only additional speculation. Also note this, while solid and substantial physical contact with a vehicle and a tiny bit of bruising in my upper inner thigh, barely constitutes an accident let alone one worth reporting. It is really no big deal to me in the result, but only pointed it out as an example that drivers will do stupid things even if you do you best to anticipate and control a situation. I wrote about it in this thread for two reasons: 1. So as not to start yet another endless discussion and 2. It relates to attitudes of drivers in this areas as expressed by the author of the editorial - that is cyclist are obsticals that cause inconvienience to the mighty vehicle driver.

Al