When I rode thirty years ago, almost every motorist treated me with respect. There was always a handful so captivated by the novelty of an adult on the bike that they just couldn't go by without shouting something witty out the window, but otherwise, people went out of their way to give me space.
That didn't really change during the "LeMond boom". Suddenly there were a lot more cyclists on the road, but mostly we behaved ourselves and mostly the motorists adapted, and we all got along.
Then came the "Lance boom" and suddenly all the Type A jerks were driving their Beemers to the meet-up spot, unloading their $10,000 carbon bikes, and then behaving like complete A-holes on the road while dressed like tropical insects in heat. And overnight, I couldn't go for a bike ride without motorists going out of their way to make my life unpleasant.
So yeah, I have a pretty strong opinion on why cyclists should care what motorists think, and it's the same opinion I have for everyone's behavior in public: common decency simply makes life more bearable, and being a jerk because someone else was a jerk first makes for a very unpleasant world.
Last edited by Six jours; 01-25-15 at 10:53 PM.