What these "new rules" seem to have done is simply trigger a whole load of people who weren't really aware of what their obligations or expectations were already - the 'news' has simply woken them up and given them a target to rant and rave in a focussed way at, rather than the constant but disparate commentary underneath Daily Mail articles or Jeremy Vine tweets. It is a rallying call to all the entitled drivers who have spent their whole driving lives under an assumed belief of righteousness. If there had been no changes to the HC but a high profile awareness campaign of what is expected the same would have happened.
We now see people railing against the "new laws" and I've seen an online petition raised to rescind the changes, largely all based on misunderstanding or simple ignorance of what the new HC statements actually mean. For the most part, to paraphrase, the new HC is essentially stating "if you see a cyclist doing this, they are allowed to" but sadly without the additional "...and always were".
People, especially entitled drivers, do not like being told that their beliefs or behaviours are wrong. I have lost count of the number of times I have seen comments about things being illegal, or quoting laws that are simply made up to fit the commentator's beliefs.
