NSW rules do, at least, require motorists to "change lanes when overtaking bicycle riders on multi-lane roads and allow at least one metre space for bicycle riders in a single lane situation." Yet even in Surry Hills, the world epicentre of cycle tolerance, two wheels are easily bullied by four. The cycle lanes are great, although the lines are often wonky. But between cycle lanes, you're in the valley of the shadow of noise-raddled, diesel-stinking death. Any cyclist knows instantly from the heat and flavour of the four-wheel slipstream whether her passer is friend or foe. But as you leave Surry Hills, the ambient levels of two-wheel antipathy increase with the square of the distance, along with speed, road-width and resentment. And in a way, that's what is interesting. It's not just war. It's that thing we don't have: class war. A few months back, when I stopped to query a man who'd parked his removal truck across the cycle lane - the third such blockage in half a kilometre - he instantly upped the decibels.

''Tell that to Clover,'' he yelled. ''She's such an educated woman.'' He was making some impressive leaps, real Alan Jones specials, from cycling to Clover Moore to education-as-insult, in order to collect them all in one elitist basket. What was he saying, exactly? Decently ignorant blokes drive utes? Good guys pollute? Thoughtfulness is unAustralian? Blogging about this I was immediately accused by a thousand foul-mouthed trolls of hating the proletariat. (I'm sorry, the what?) Of trying to get the poor truckie sacked or jailed so he couldn't feed his countless hungry children. In fact, for all they knew, the driver was an unusually rude inner-city gay of private means, moving his own stuff into his penthouse as part of a fitness regime. So, who's drawing the stereotypes here? Throughout, one of my most heinous sins was having a PhD - as though studying, especially studying cities, instantly made you a snivelling green. I am, of course, but the logic is still flawed.

The typecasting cannot hold. Cyclists also drive. Oncologists own utes. Drivers cycle. Cyclists walk, pedestrians skate. People stand and chat in bike lanes. Life is not simple. That's why it's worth the bother. Yes, cyclists are annoying. We've all felt it. They're in the way - and rest assured, they are aware of this. But cars also hold people up. They even hold bikes up. Scoria trucks back across six lanes. Drunks drop their pants in Macquarie Street. None of it elicits the rage that flows so freely towards the cyclist. It's as if the bike makes rage OK. The rage comes out as abuse, verbal and gestural - on Wednesday, I was again yelled at by a ute driver. But it also emerges as serious, life-threatening behaviour, especially too-close passing that forces cyclists to choose their risk; risk being ''doored'' by parked vehicles or being collected by moving ones. A 2009 AAMI report confirmed drivers' increasing aggression, finding that almost a quarter admit performing risky manoeuvres to vent anti-bike anger. This despite the 2008 NRMA report that found venting their rage makes drivers feel worse, not better.

The cyclist cannot win. She can switch to the bus only lane. This is illegal, and few terrors compare with a vengeful bus, swinging back in so tightly that its rear, articulated end swipes the dirt from your frail front wheel. She can switch to the footpath - also illegal unless in a shared zone or with a child in tow. This annoys the pedestrians, who rightly defend their right to drift, and unleashes its own perils. My daughter, cycling on a footpath once in Kings Cross, was shoved by an unprovoked pedestrian off her bike into coming traffic. Or cyclists can ''claim the lane'' as it's known - insisting on her legal right as a vehicle not to be shoved dangerously aside. This is often safest, since it prevents reckless passing, but does nothing to assuage driver fury. The issue is this. We have three modes of transport - vehicles, bikes and pedestrians - and only two carriageways. Legally, the bike is a vehicle but taxonomically, it is a hybrid, a centaur. Part-car, part-pedestrian, it can slip through traffic and perch at lights for a quick getaway. It can cross with the pedestrians (this should be legal) and slide over traffic islands. The rules should recognise this third sector and educate all to its existence. Cycleways cannot be everywhere. Where they are absent, etiquette must kick in - based, like all manners, on tolerance, diversity, and a duty of care directly proportional to wheel count.

Twitter: @emfarrelly Clarification: The original version of this story said it is illegal to ride in a bus lane rather than a bus only lane.