I know it's hard to accept sometimes, but the world changes. Cycling is becoming more prevelant in auto-dominated America, whether autoists think it should or not.
Isn't it as likely that hipster bikers of today will grow into adults with cars like their parents did? "Our generation is different and our trends will last forever" doesn't have a great track record of panning out.
Maybe, maybe not. My friends and I are all pushing 40, most don't own cars (including some of the people with kids, mind), several of us don't even have licenses.
Like I said, the world changes. We got to this autoist-centric world slowly and through a lot of policy choices, and we'll move away from it the same way.
Many generations have changed to adopt newer forms of transit than the previous generations. I'm pretty sure the pony express doesn't run anymore. Did you think we would never change forms of transit again? http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/01/16/t...
By foot? By car? By bus? "Cyclist" isn't a race or religion. He's not telling them "to go" anywhere. He's saying that if you choose to use a mode of transport that is a hazard and nuisance to others, you are in a glass house and shouldn't be throwing stones.
They are a hazard because drivers need to take actions to avoid them. It turns the road into an obstacle course, except with unpredictable obstacles that rarely follow traffic rules like red lights.
I spend a lot of time on the road, and I see autoists running red lights far more frequently than cyclists. Cyclists are at a lot greater risk getting out into any intersection, it'd be suicide (literally) to put ourselves into the path of oncoming traffic.
I do see this remark ("you dumb kids on your bikes break all the traffic laws!!") on all the web forums for the local newspaper, whenever any article comes along about bike lanes or whatever. I just don't see people on bikes breaking traffic laws anywhere near as often as people in cars.
As for needing to avoid things, would you call traffic circles or pedestrians a "hazard" as well? Again, you're in a two-ton metal box, none of this stuff is going to do anything more than scratch your paint.
If your roads are an obstacle course then it sounds like they shouldn't have cars on because they're clearly not wide enough. That's endangering the lives of all traffic, not just cyclists.