In my part of the US, I believe it’s 3 ft (0.91 meters), so unfortunately even a legal pass feels like a close pass. I imagine the 1.5 meters still feels close too. I agree that’s super hard to measure from a car—I’m a cyclist and a driver, so I get it. In many parts of the US that aren’t as backward as mine, the minimum distance is 6ft, which seems a little more reasonable.
I would wager that most of the “cyclists are so entitled” folks haven’t ridden a bike since they were children in large part because they know how scary it would be to bike on a stroad getting close passed by a bunch of people monitoring their phones first, their cars second, the road third, and you not at all.
For a large portion of people, it’s not a lack of understanding how harrowing the experience is—rather, they just want cyclists to suffer because of mob mentality. But I agree that every driver should have to experience the close pass as a cyclist so they can hopefully empathize a little more.
Kinda related: I think everyone should have to experience what it’s like to have an Uber driver with their hazards on parked in the middle of the road, blocking both directions of travel—but it’s okay because they’ll “only be a minute”
I’m curious if anyone else is able to provide an example here. Personally, I grew up in an extremely right-wing, very isolated, very culty version of the southern baptist church. I was around young-earthers, anti-vaxxers, anti-evolution folks, dinosaur/man co-existence, believing black people are black because they’re cursed—all sorts of crazy whackadoodle shit. I never once met someone who didn’t believe in space. I think you’re right that this was a YouTube Fact™ that she picked up somewhere.