Originally Posted by John Forester

I agree that our situation would be much nicer if society changed to accept each of us cyclists as a mature person capable of obeying the rules of the road and looking after himself or herself. However, such an attitude change is not necessary, since society has allowed us, so far, to operate as drivers of vehicles, although our status to do so has constantly been under challenge.

You assert that obtaining that change in public attitude is necessary. You want to persuade the motoring public that cyclists are mature people capable of obeying the rules of the road and looking after themselves. OK, but you are simultaneously complaining that you have to have the protection of bikeways because you are not capable of obeying the rules of the road and looking out for yourself, which facilities motorists designed to protect themselves, so they said, from people who are incapable of obeying the rules of the road and of looking after themselves.

You are trying to persuade motorists of what, for them, is an inconvenient truth, while simultaneously destroying the validity of your own argument by justifying theirs.

That's where the emotional quagmire resides.