Originally Posted by Six jours
I bet I know the kind of road you're talking about though, and again, I don't think our approaches are radically different. On the narrow coast roads -- especially with lots of parked cars -- your approach makes a lot of sense. OTOH, I personally consider that kind of road to be higher risk than average regardless of how it's ridden, and it does bother me a bit that I have to impede traffic to ride it as safely as possible. I certainly agree that I have a RIGHT to ride those roads, but I choose not to when possible -- both because I don't like pushing my luck after a long and occasionally foolish riding career, and because I don't like being in the way of other people if I can help it.
It may be true that one type of road is inherently of higher risk than another, but I believe the behavior of the cyclist determines the real risk much, much more than any minor differences in inherent road risk difference. That is, a safe experienced cyclist will only be slightly more at risk on the higher risk road (just as any driver is), but is still much, much safer than the unitiated cyclist riding on the supposedly much safer road.
You say it bothers you "a bit" to have to impede traffic, and that you don't like being in the way of other people if you can help it. It's very difficult to translate attitude in and out of written English (hearing your voice, and seeing your facial and body language would be very helpful), but it's possible what you're trying to convey is what I believe to be an attitude that can hinder one's ability to comfortably, safely and effectively ride a bicycle in traffic to a surprisingly significant degree. That attitude also seems to happen to correlate with "liking bike lanes".
I learned to drive in 1971 VW bus, and, so, I learned to be accustomed to impeding traffic and being in the way of other people from early on. I suspect that experience is why it doesn't seem to bother me as much as it does other people. But I know it's imperative to be okay with it in order to be truly comfortable riding a bike in traffic, because delaying others is an inherent part of it. It's really liberarting to realize it's okay, and, ironically, once you get past that, it becomes easier to figure out how to minimize being in the way.