[jyl]

I ride in the city most of the time, mixing it up with cars and buses, sometimes with a bike lane, sometimes without. It works out fine.

When there's a bike lane, I use it and drivers mostly remember to look before turning across it. When there's no bike lane, I stay to the right whenever the road is wide enough to let drivers pass me, most everyone gives me at least 2 feet of clearance. When the road is not wide enough, I take the lane but also ride fast to get through the narrow part as quickly as possible. Typically the speed limit is 20 to 30 mph on city streets here, when I'm hustling along at 25 mph I'm not blocking traffic too much. As I've said before, bike riders and car drivers get along quite well in Portland, which suggests that they could in other cities as well.

On rural roads, I think you've got to ride single file. At least watch your helmet mirror and get back in single file when a car appears. There's no reason why bikes and cars can't co-exist that way. There are some two lane roads that go over the West Hills of Portland, car speeds are 45-50 mph, 5-7% grade so the riders are going 10-12 mph, and there is at best 8 inches of irregular "shoulder" past the fog line. Bicyclists ride that regularly, I've done it often enough. Cyclist rides in predictable straight line almost on the fog line, driver moves over toward the centerline, there is enough room and no-one is really inconvenienced. Yeah, a real bike path would be better - someday - but sensible behavior trumps physical infrastructure.