A friend of mine and his wife are serious cyclists, all three of us have been car-free cyclists at times (by choice) so we've pretty much seen it all. An interesting story on the topic of rolling coal happened with these two. My bro and I were watching YouTube videos and came across one filmed by the passenger in a diesel pickup truck chugging up a mountain pass during some kind of cycling event where dozens of cyclists spaced pretty far apart were winching themselves up the paved mountain road at what looked like walking speed in the video.
The driver must have been a professional coal-roller because he nailed every cyclist perfectly as he passed them over the course of a couple miles. I guess the wind was just right or something but nearly every cyclist disappeared behind a thick black cloud as they got passed. My bud and I were dying laughing along with the two hillbillies in the truck. His wife eventually came over to see what was so funny and freaked the hell out, scolded us, and became just generally infuriated at the scene in the video.
The reason I bring this up is to illustrate how a situation can differ depending on the tender sensibilities of the people involved. Of course I don't have any breathing disorders that would make that scene less funny but had I been there in person getting rolled I would have given those dudes a freaking trophy.
When I throw my leg over that top tube and press down on a pedal heading into auto traffic land, I kinda expect the worst. Just so long as nobody actually HITS me with a solid object, it's just all part of the program. It is difficult to infuriate me because I AM THE ONE RESPONSIBLE for putting myself into those situations with FULL KNOWLEDGE that sooner than later, I'm going to be "assaulted" out there.
Cycling around motor vehicles SUCKS. If you can't handle a little smoke, perhaps find another pastime. Otherwise you will likely be sad a lot of the time. IMO.