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I submit to you that actually the problem is that we even think of them as 'motorists' rather than just other people on-road who happen to be in bulkier machinery.
And, for the record- I've seen far more cyclists behaving like total cunts on the road than I have people in cars.
Well said, and well said.
William.
People are dicks when given the context to behave as such. It seems that this is often fuelled by criteria which makes them feel removed by greater degrees of separation.
Take for instance the guy who buys a t-shirt from Primark, knowing that that shit is way too cheap to be anything close to ethically produced yet buys it anyway- fuck it, that misery is far away. Or the Manager who treats the intern very differently from how he does his boss - he's far enough away from the intern from a class perspective despite them occupying the same physical space. The nobhead at the bar getting angry at the waiter because he's taking longer than 5 minutes to notice he's there and he wants his drink right-fucking-now ... 'why is this asshole taking so fucking long- useless prick'.
I find that there is an established 'us/them' with cars and bikes (and, for the record, pedestrians). Cars hate bikes- bikes hate cars etc. Its super fucking dumb- but not because either camp is a pack of arseholes, its because their criteria for existance has been poorly or naïvely designed by people lacking the foresight which modern life has presented us.
'I am in a car and i have a right of way' 'this is my road'
'I am on a bike and could be killed at any moment, don't you fucking dare not notice me dickhead' 'oh.. and this is my right of way fuck face'
There is some interesting shit going on in various towns scattered throughout the world (which I'm sure you know about- or have been mentioned in this thread- sorry if it has..) where they've tried removing shit like street signs and lights etc. - Took me a while to figure out why this was a good idea but moving to Amsterdam gave me some clues a few years ago. The idea (I think) is that you remove the criteria- the 'this is mine' bit and let people sort it out amongst themselves. No rules.. just humans trying not to step on eachother's shoes. It levels the playing field such that it makes that possible.
So yeah.. 'what do you think of motorists' was maybe an intentionally divisive question. If not then I submit to you that actually the problem is that we even think of them as 'motorists' rather than just other people on-road who happen to be in bulkier machinery.
And, for the record- I've seen far more cyclists behaving like total cunts on the road than I have people in cars.