And I'm gonna try to give you both sides of the argument from a bicyclist's pov.
I started out as an ass hole biker. When I was in my late teens/early 20's I was reckless as fukk on a bike. It didn't matter if it was in the woods on or off trail, country roads flying down hills around corners. City biking was no different except I had to be mindful of cars and pedestrians.
I've actually been in two car/bike accidents. One as the cyclist and one as the driver. When I was like 19-20 I was biking down a hill behind a car that stopped short. I couldn't stop in time and wound up on his trunk with my face against the back window. fukked up the bike but I was fine and the driver was mad cool. The second time I was driving around Grand Army Plaza in Bk. It's a huge traffic circle, prob like 5 lanes and I'm in the outer 4th. Not many cars around, I'm getting ready to hit my exit and then *BAM* I see this white ladies face pushed up against my driver's side window and hear her say "Oof!!!" I hit the breaks and see that she slid ahead of me so I moved my car to block the lane she was in. Luckily there were plenty of witnesses who told the cops that she cut through all the other lanes and just flew into me. Turns out there was a bike race in the city that day and she had been in it.
But then I stopped biking for a few years because I lived places where biking wasn't really popping because of terrain.
I started biking seriously as an adult at some point and came to it with much more respect for it and my environment than when I was a knucklehead. I dunno if it's because I recognize my own mortality, or I have more respect for other people now. Prob a bit of both but I consider myself to be an evolved and considerate cyclist.
