Road Cycling - City riders: how do you enjoy riding in the city?

I live in Fullerton, California (south of LA). I commute 15 mins to work but I really don't enjoy riding in the city.
What do the rest of you do when you ride for excersize in large cities? I'm pretty safe when I ride- hand signals, waiting at stoplights, etc... but I'm still sketchy riding around. We don't have bike lanes and usually the roads are skinny and I'm right on the edge of the asphalt or in the gutter. It sucks.

What do the rest of you do? Ride right in traffic, behind cars?

Bwahahah. Well I do what the nyc_dragrace does. Adrenaline rush. Only on a small stretch of bloor. I don't go the wrong way down streets or run red lights though however.

Ride behind cars? Haha, i'd never get to school. Out of the 30km commute (1-way) i'd be stuck behind traffic for about the 25 of those. Lane splitting!

I'm NEVER in the gutter or in door range of cars. If there ain't enough room for you and me, one of yous' is not going through, (i.e you, the car).

i tend to drive a little bit. i have to do a 1/2 mile gentle climb outside my door followed by another 1 mile climb about 1/2 a mile later to get anywhere...i live on a hill that dead-ends going east/west and has 2 canyons on both sides of it, north and south. they're not bad climbs, but it just sucks having to do it with absolutely no warming up.

i head out to ucsd, park on campus, and ride from there. usually flat or some downhill to get my legs moving first

Operator:
Yeah- sometimes i don't ride so close to the curb. I feel like I want to share the road by being as far to the rihgt as possible. It is too bad the cars and I can't fit on the same road. (this is just bad city planning) They have another lane to use- oh well.

Melloboy:
Bummer you are hit with hills so quickley. I love being able to ride flat right out of my house- but unfortunatly, it is RIGHT into one our city's main streets... this this thread.

I enjoy riding of all kinds. I have a Trek hybird that I use to commute, get groceries, movies, etc. in the city. Sometimes, though, I wish I could just open up my garage and be out in the cornfields on my road bike right away. It doesn't work that way; from my downtown apartment, it takes about 40 minutes to get out into the cornfields north of here, and it's all on a multi-use path (yeck, I hate those things). I guess riding in the city is still pretty cool. The view changes quickly, and there are lots of girls to see you ride. However, riding my road bike out in the country is waaaaaay more fun- no stoplights, lots of trees, quiet, not many cars, etc. I often find myself driving out to the country just to put some quality miles in, since MUP miles, IMHO, are complete trash miles.
Why don't I take raods out into the country, you may ask? Well, there's this thing called suburbia in a big giant ring around the city. I refuse to ride anywhere in suburbia except the MUP. Those people out there drive like complete morons around cyclists. So my answer is probably somewhere between "the city is okay" and "I don't like riding in the city".

i actually think the thicker traffic of nyc makes it a little safer. plus drivers (although this theory often doesn't hold water) are constantly aware of people cutting them off and trying not to hit pedestrains. once you get a little brave, you can muscle your way through the streets very effectively. and if the cars are going 15-20 mph most of the time, you're not likely to become roadkill. most of the time you'll be faster on the bike.

i feel very comfortable swerving in and out of lanes. after some time you just listen for the sound of a car coming up behind you rather than looking. it's really amazing how accute your senses can become once you get used to the environment.

I used to ride my mountain bike to commute - it got me into the habit of treating cars as moving, steel singletrack, or, if they're moving a bit faster you can have an awful lot of fun racing the pace car! Now I'm on the roadie and I can get through even narrower gaps, it's ace.

Woo hoo.

I take the lane while in heavy traffic and it is moving and split when it stops or is backed up. In light traffic I simply sit in the lane as me and the cars are moving at the same speed. I tend not to ride by the curb as most of the streets in philly plain suck and I sometimes need the whole lane to swerve around some of the potholes and other obstructions. I follow most rules of the road (lights, signalling turns etc) always.

[edit] forgot to add that biking down here is a blast. Good weather, nice paths and several good challenging routes. There are a lot of cyclists down here and an infrastructure to support them which is really sweet. Tons of shops, hangouts, bicycling clubs and so on.

I really enjoy riding in Orange County. For the most part, drivers are pretty courteous; however, there are the occasional rude drivers. Most of the roads that I ride on have painted bike lanes and I feel very comfortable riding anywhere in Irvine. If I do not want to ride next to cars... then there are plenty of bike/pedestrian only pathways. For example, the Santa Ana River trail is a great 30 mile stretch...

I try to avoid any roads that do not have painted bike lanes, but every once in a while I do have to ride them. In these rare cases, I ride a little bit slower, and as CharleSW mentioned, I also ride in the gutter; especially if a bus comes flying by.

The Twin Cities are pretty awesome for urban riding. There is a lot of greenway threading through the cities and not too many stop signs or lights. There are a ton of bike trails too when rush hour strikes. There are some good bike lanes for the commutes into downtown Minneapolis too. If it weren't for the weather, it would be a biker's paradise.

City riding can be a real trip. It was unnerving at first, but I got over it after the first crash and have moved on - I really do love it. At times, it's like trying to find order in total chaos. It can also play with your emotions, so you must be careful. It forces you to be aware and very much in the minute you're living.

Then there's the days where it's boring as *****. :)

If it will help, here's a take on traffic: you can't avoid it, you confront and accept it.
(but not in a head-on manner)