of cars and bicycles

i was in the bus today when the person next to me started telling her friends about an incident that happened to her recently. she was out partying one night, and was cycling home at about 2:30am. as she was turning a corner, her iPod slipped out of her pocket/bag and was dropping so she bent over to pick it up. i suppose she must have looked like she was falling and out of control, cos suddenly policemen appeared (miraculously, they must be around every other corner) and established that she was slightly drunk and hence was in danger of getting into an accident or sth. she was then hauled to the police station, had a blood test done for alcohol, and a doctor ran some tests on her (you never knew doctors worked at police stations all through the night huh). turns out her body alcohol content was slightly over the limit.. and so she will have her driving license suspended (for 2 mths she thinks) and will have to pay a fine.
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started taking driving lessons about a mth ago.. and i noticed that my instructor never left out cyclists as users of the roads. for example, when i'm turning right (i'm driving on the left side, so right is the side i don't have to cross over the other side) he would ask me what i would look out for. and the answer would not be just pedestrians, but also cyclists. in fact, i have to turn my head over everytime i turn right (ok, especially during the test) to check for cyclists since they may come pretty fast. also, there're roads that are so narrow that only one car in each direction can fit. when there's traffic from the other direction, i cannot overtake the bike, nor shd i expect the bike to get out of my way. in fact, as i found out today, i should keep a distance of 1.5m from a cyclist (as opposed to 1m from parked cars along the road).
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so.. what's the moral of both stories?

to me, it is that cyclists are very much included here as road users. there are bicycle tracks on certain roads, but when there aren't and a cyclist is on the road, he can be reasonably sure that drivers will look out for him and respect his right to use the road too. of course, this also means that cyclists have to follow the same traffic rules as a car/motorbike/truck driver. ideally, everyone does what he's supposed to and all is good. but in reality.. hmm.. well.. i shall just believe in this until proven wrong, and continue to pay attention while cycling & driving. ;)