As a former cyclist having done over 10,000 miles commuting to work, I feel obliged to defend them a little here. Half of my 21 mile commute the cycle path just isn't up to the job. Its incredibly bumpy and / or far too narrow, littered with broken glass, dog poo, etc and also with lots of pedestrians, dog walkers, dogs off leads, very slow cyclists all of whom wander about and pay no attention to what they are doing. When doing 20mph plus its a real pain to cycle on and navigate through all of that. Then, there is the issue of having to cross roads, junctions, people pulling out of their driveways without looking. I do genuinely get why cyclists choose to use the road instead of the "cycle path".
Two abreast is safer for the cyclists since if you give a some drivers an inch of room to squeeze through they will and at high speed. If you want to know what its like as a cyclist to have that happen to you try standing next to track at a train station as a train comes belting through. I've nearly been killed by buses who have done exactly this. It can be absolutely terrifying.
On the flip side, there are some perfectly smooth, wide sections that I've seen cyclists not using and riding 2 abreast on the road next to it. I k now those sections are perfect for riding on so that is a bit ********* really, but they are entitled to use the road as well. I still give them a lot of room (always over take a bike as if they are a car) and be patient. It's so little effort to brake a bit, wait for a few seconds, and then accelerate to overtake I really don't get why some people get so arsey about it. Then, some drivers do stupid **** like hurl abuse at you from the safety of the car (yeah, arent you so tough). Or as has happened to me before, use their car as a weapon by deliberately trying to run me off the road!!! I mean seriously? I'm just trying to get to work like everyone else.
I don't cycle now having had encountered too many w@nkers, many near misses due to anger or incompetence, and 4 accidents during that time. The last accident where a van drove into me which chucked me off and smashed up my collarbone, leaving me mostly out of action for about 4 or 5 months and it still hasn't fully healed nearly a year on (been unlucky, apparently). Id literally just bought my s3 and then couldnt drive it for 5 or so weeks, so if only I had taken the new car that morning instead of the bike ***!!
Yes they can be a bit irritating but try to have patience and just give them room. A silly mistake, misjudgement, or bit of rage and you could end up severely damaging or killing a cyclist so easily. Seems to be a fairly regular occurrence in Cambridge that a cyclist gets killed. The last one I knew about was a father of 3 youngish children. Just so sad for the kids