Can we please avoid treating the roads as a battleground between cars and bikes? Can we please be more forgiving of each other? This is David Mark's plea as a cyclist and a motorist.

There's a certain fatalism that comes with riding a bike in Sydney.

I've done it for 15 years and I love it. In that time I've racked up tens of thousands of kilometres without having an accident. Apart from the exhilaration of riding, it's by far the quickest way of getting around Sydney for short to medium trips. But I know accidents are always a possibility.

It happened to my wife about 18 months ago when a truck driver opened his car door into the traffic without looking and clipped her handlebars. As she fell her knee twisted and her ACL snapped. Six months later she had a knee reconstruction.

It happened to me last month. Being hit by a car door has always been front of mind when I ride in traffic - even more so since my wife's accident. But on this day I was a fraction too close - perhaps 1.4 metres instead of 1.5. So when one driver flung his door wide open without looking in his side mirror, he collected the very edge of my handlebars. The impact sent me sprawling. I hit the ground hard on my hip and knee, and had deep scratches on my chest from where I went over the handlebars. I subsequently developed whiplash symptoms which fortunately cleared up after a few days.

But what was worse than the injuries, which fortunately weren't too serious, was the reaction of the driver, Joe. As I lay on the road in shock he started abusing me. Not once did he ask if I was all right; instead he unleashed a torrent of bile. He called me a f---ing idiot for being too close and told me I shouldn't be on the f---ing road.

When I pointed out to him that he hadn't looked in his side mirror to check whether anyone was coming (and let's face it, it could have been a truck that took out his door), he abused me even more. He seemed completely unconcerned about his traffic offence (it's worth a $311 fine) and the shock and damage he'd caused to another human being. His only concern was the small damage to his door.

So vicious was his abuse that other people watching on took him to task, which only led to more abuse.

The whole episode was completely surreal and somewhat frightening. How is it that someone can have so little regard for another person who they've injured, and how can they completely disregard the right for someone else to use the road?

I can only put it down to the sort of campaigns that have been waged in some sections of the media - mainly on commercial talk-back radio and in the pages of the Daily Telegraph. The issue was raised on the ABC's Media Watch last week.

Paul Barry quoted broadcaster Derryn Hinch, who said that cyclists were "cockroaches on wheels", and the Daily Telegraph's Claire Harvey, who wrote, "A lot of cyclists are, basically, ungrateful dickheads."

The Daily Telegraph has of course waged a long campaign against the new bike lanes in Sydney that provide safer riding conditions for cyclists who don't want to ride on roads.

Media Watch also quoted the former ABC broadcaster Kel Richards, now filling in on Sydney's 2GB: "My personal view is cyclists should be banned from the public roadways. They should not be allowed to ride their bikes on the road."

This was the attitude that Joe was parroting when he told me, "You shouldn't even be on the f---ing road."

So let's examine the logic (or otherwise) of that statement. What is it that gives cars the right to roads, rather than cyclists? Is it their size, the number of wheels, the fact they have an internal combustion engine? None of these things should make one form of transport superior to another. Is it their speed? Well, if that were the case shouldn't slow buses or trucks be banned from the roads?

The reality is that it's completely illogical to suggest one form of transport has more of a right to a road than another.

Really it's cultural. On a trip to France several years ago, I borrowed a bike for a ride on some quiet country roads. After a while, I found myself somewhere I didn't want to be, on a busier road with an 80km/h speed limit and a queue of cars behind me. But instead of honking or passing dangerously close, they waited until it was safe to pass - and when they did, they gave me a wide berth.

France has a culture of accepting cyclists and motorists seem to be happy to share the roads. Indeed, the same is true of many European cities. Increasingly, we are seeing bicycle infrastructure added to cities in Europe and around the world.

Those opposed to cyclists seem to want their cake and eat it too. They complain about cyclists on the road, but also about the cycle lanes that have been built to get them off the roads. The reality is that we need more separate bike lanes, and we need to accept that when cyclists have to ride on the road, they have just as much right to be there as any other form of transport.

Equally, cyclists have to respect road rules, and understand there are certain situations they shouldn't put themselves in - like riding on busy roads or motorways, where there isn't room to pass safely.

And herein lies my plea as a cyclist and a motorist. Can we please be more forgiving of each other? Can we avoid treating the roads as a battleground and instead work to ensure our safety, even if it means a little give and take? And to our governments, can we give some of the money spent on roads over to cycle paths and separate cycle lanes on roads, so that everyone can move about our cities in the manner in which they choose?

David Mark works in the ABC's Radio Current Affairs unit. View his full profile here.