I have a sneaking suspicion that the driver of that van lived out a hidden fantasy of millions of drivers that day.
I think our road could be more accomodating of bikers. That said, it’s a major annoyance when they clog up traffic. My state has a law where a vehicile must pull off of the road if five or more vehicles are backed up behind it and it is impeding traffic.
A law, needless to say, that is never enforced.
If you are not from No. California you may not be familiar with the Critical Mass idiots. These are not the typical self-centered, sanctimonious jerks on bikes one normally encounters. Critical Mass is a sort of loosely organized anarcho-econazi movement that has been around for years in The greater S.F. Bay area. They pick a time and place of heavy traffic and ride slowly along, taking up all lanes and preventing decent people from excercising their God-given right to move from one place to another. Thus causing traffic to steadily worsen. I still remember how angry I became when I got stuck behind a mob of them in Santa Cruz one evening about ten years ago. I went from zero to homicidal in about 30 seconds. Fortunately I was able to control my violent impulses, but I sure swore a blue streak at them. (That was before I became a Catholic.)