In reply to woolsack:
it's a really dubious article at best, and the logic that everyone A) started loving all cyclists because wiggo and did well in the olympics, and B) that everyone now hates all cyclists because some tory toff who decided to have a go at the plebs just happened to be on a bike is quite frankly up there with Edward De Bono's theory that we could stop the war in Palestine in we sent them marmite.
On a more serious note, how do we get car drivers to understand cyclists? My approach would be that we punish offending road users by taking them out on bikes for a day on the roads of London, just so they know what it feels like when a bloke in a 4x4 or a van zooms past their elbows while having a chat on the phone.