I was an avid bicyclist in Seattle. I also drove a lot and rode a motorcycle. On my bike and motorcycle my attitude was always: Assume you are invisible.
It saved my butt many times on both two wheelers. I also was actually hit by cars three times. I never went down but all three cars were severely dented and scratched up by my body and my bike (one bright red Porsche turned into me and to stay up I forced my pedal up to rip its way through his front wheel well.
Some bike riders ride like a$$es. Some drivers drive like a$$es. I had a flat bed truck come within four inches of my handlebars as he passed me IN A BIKE LANE just ‘cause he didn’t like cyclists. Another on in Kent valley, as part of a long line of stopped cars for a light, saw me coming up in the bike lane and turned his wheel hard right and pushed it against the curb. It must have ticked him off when I simply hopped onto the sidewalk as I approached his tire and hopped back down when in front of him.
People don’t like it when others have the ability to get through traffic in a way they can’t. But yes, there is a bit of “mob mentality” with some groups of riders. That said, I blow through stop signs all the time on my bike, but not in my car. I’m a “spirit of the law” sort of guy. I’ll stop if there are cars on the cross street.
Going slow in the bicycle lane congesting traffic at rush hour. Then when the cars are stopped at the light, the bicyclist rides past them, through the light, and the whole slow process is repeated.
>People don’t like it when others have the ability to get through traffic in a way they can’t.<
No, people don’t like it when they safely pass some arrogant p***k on a bicycle and then when they’re stopped at a traffic light, said p***k passes them yet again, so they must repeat the process.
On occasion, I drive an F350 dually pickup. When some horse’s patoot on a bicycle passes me multiple times, in heavy traffic, it puts us both in danger.