Sneaking up on 58 years in this country, and that's given me a perspective. Not always positive.
A "1970's solution" WILL NOT WORK now, because when I was riding in the 1970's, drivers respected cyclists' place on the road. I NEVER got buzzed, and only honked at ONCE. Got more than that LAST WEEK.
Our society has degenerated -- there is a CONSTANT, STRIDENT call about our "rights", whenever ANY necessity (real or imagined) so much as trims a figurative fingernail. Sad that I never hear any discussion about the attendant responsibilities that go with those rights...or the idea that the failure to shoulder those responsibilities leads to loss or limitation OF those rights.
I read somewhere once that fewer laws inevitably lead to more laws -- nature of the human beast, an overreaction to an overreach in the other direction. Saw it in the 1980's.
What will, IMO, remedy A LOT of this is EDUCATION -- but there are far too many morons out there who decided at about age 12 that they know all they need to know, and stop learning.
<steps off soapbox...>
Job one for a bike rider is to get from A to B without getting clobbered, whether by vehicle, falling tree, angry dog, angry pedestrian, or rogue mailbox. Situational awareness prevents a great deal of that...and situational awareness inside vehicles does a LOT MORE.
But we ALL need to practice it. Idaho stops, statistically anyway, seem safer and more conducive to travel. But the human animal is selfish and fickle enough to make ANY or ALL of it dangerous.
It takes work, and we ALL gotta wanna do it.