Compared to cyclists and walkers, motorists are arrogant. In fact, We can quantify motorist arrogance.

Imagine a motorist at 30 miles an hour; a cyclist at ten miles an hour; a pedestrian at three miles an hour. As the motorist meets the cyclist or the pedestrian, the motorist is thinking, “I am more important than you are. My time is worth three to ten times more than your time. If you valued your time as much as I do mine, you would have expended the resources required to travel as fast as I am.”

Sure, the cyclist may be cycling for exercise. But that doesn’t change the motorist’s mental calculation. Perhaps the motorist is driving to the gym, to get on an exercise bike. The same calculation applies. If you, the non-motorist, ask that particular motorist why they don’t ditch the car and merge their exercise and their commuting… chances are they’ll tell you that they don’t have the time for that. That is, their time is more valuable than yours.

This mental calculation is a temptation, and cyclists are tempted to engage in the same calculation, when they meet a pedestrian.