How is it possible to be hostile to drivers, or cyclists or pedistrians etc.

Because some people own the road.

Let me turn the question around.

Why are people so hostile to car drivers? They are trying to get from place to place as efficiently as possible. A pedestrian slows them down. A bicyclist rides unpredictably and often wobbles from side to side. Why should a bicyclist have the right to a full lane of traffic on a busy road, while going at far slower than the ambient speed?

My point is not to excuse car drivers, but to say that walkers and bike riders are not inherently virtuous and without blame. But they have an air of insouciance – almost arrogance – about them.

Walking or cycling does not make you a virtuous person.

People feel cocooned in a car, so that they can be aggressive without being directly confronted. It is why road rage is so widespread.

And people like @elbanditoroso think they have a supreme right to get where they are going without any regard to anyone else, forgetting that driving is considered a privilege and not a right in all fifty states. And that cyclists have equal rights to the traffic lane because they are part of traffic. And pedestrians always have the right of way.

People aren’t hostile to car drivers until the driver acts like a jerk.

It doesn’t matter if people are inside or outside of cars, or pedestrians, or cyclists, or what have you. People need to think defensively, drive defensively, cycle defensively, walk defensively, LIVE defensively!
I see people standing on street corners,- I mean RIGHT ON THE CURB OF THE CORNER, like no big truck or tractor/trailer isn’t going to come around the corner and drag their rear wheels up over the curb!
At one time, 1 out of four drivers coming at you on the road was somehow impaired. (It’s probably at least 1 out of 3 now.) Why would anyone want to stick their necks so far out so needlessly??? PEOPLE IS STUPID!!!

@elbanditoroso See? Who said that cyclists and peditrians are inherently virtuous and without blame? Is this a straw man argument?

“They [drivers] are trying to get from place to place as efficiently as possible. A pedestrian slows them down.” Cyclists and pedistrians too are trying get from place to place as efficiently as possible. Aren’t they slowed down by the drivers too? And what is so efficient about polluting the air? And don’t cyclists get to where they need to faster than drivers? Have you heard of congestion on bicycle paths?