Hmm, without singling out anyone, something about this thread makes me feel a bit itchy in my skin. Sure, traveller heritage may have had an influence on the particular form of this traffic misbehaviour, but walk on to your average traveller site and you will encounter a lot of people reading the paper, doing the dishes, feeding the baby, etc etc, and not tearing round the roads in an inappropriate manner -and as in the wider society, they will be the vast majority.
The person round my way who drives the Subaru Impreza in a reprehensible manner does so in a community of a couple of thousand people who never do that. And his behaviour does not reflect on my character or education either.
But, blush, an old friend of mine used to drive around the narrow country lanes here in a rather wide trap behind his large and aggressive Irish cob. Any motorists who failed to back up smartly enough got an earful, and risked a pair of large hooves on the bonnet. And this guy was neither traveller nor country toff, just a fully paid up member of the ‘entitled’ middle classes
On a side note: horses have not been told about recumbents yet. Whenever I encounter a horse, I stop, dismount, and engage in conversation, thus proving that I am not, as the horse might reasonably conclude, some kind of weird, alien, fetlock-biting predator! I commend this advice to any riders of unusual bicycles who might not already have encountered it . . .