I agree with you Sospan. In London the most aggressive and shocking filterers are the cycle couriers. They are also the hardest to spot.
They seem to think it is acceptable to clip wing mirrors and then blame the car driver. The automatic insult is "you blind ****** didn't you see me?". They make my blood boil. They way they ride makes the Naples motorbikes look like Mr Magoo. It doesn't help that the mirrors on the Aeros are rather small and difficult to aim effectively due to the mounts.
I do think doing a stint on bikes and motorscooters would make us all more considerate. I had a lucky chance to visit Bermuda for a company meeting some time back and you cannot rent cars only scooters (there are not enough parking spaces etc etc) so the entire island runs at tourist moped speed as the roads are narrow and its a small place. It had the positive effect of reminding me not overtake to close as I was the squishy rolling roadblock on the 50cc bike in this case and did not have enough power to get out of the way. On returning I further extended my safety zone on bikes/scooters/horses etc. Wish they would do the same for me in traffic.
