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@dancing james
I was doing CPC training today, my experience was similar to yours. Some of the group were open minded, but we had a couple of slightly belligerent trainees. By the time we looked at traffic lights with a cycle lane filtering cyclists up the inside things started to change. Even the most vocal objector who had been saying cyclists should always use cycle lanes, but who hates it when people filter on the inside had a bit of a penny drop moment.
Again the RLJ issue really gets up other road users noses, not helped by over half the cyclists jumping through the set of lights we were looking at.
No one mentioned helmets except the one guy who pointed out how ridiculous it is that people seem to think they become invincible when they were a helmet, and how little protection they offer.
Also the standard of cycling they demonstrated was good, and once things like the door zone were explained they took it on board and incorporated it into their riding.
One of the drivers did confound me by agreeing that he could see that cyclists swerving in and out of parked cars is more dangerous for them and other road users, "but they should do it anyway". He was adamant about this, until the end of the course when it became apparent he had been told years ago in his cycling proficiency that he was meant to hug the curb where possible and was still hanging on to this notion. He then acknowledged that this belief had been the barrier.