There is an interesting dilemma here - many of the "aggressive" cycling actions that are good for the individual cyclist are also bad PR, which means they may be bad for cyclists as a whole.

For example, "taking the lane" is clearly the best move for a cyclist's safety in a number of traffic situations. But when that maneuver means a long line of cars going 10 mph on the commute to/from work, almost all of the commuters stuck in that line would be happy to vote for legislation to keep cyclists off the road.

It would be nice to think that those folks would vote to build separated bike lanes - but my sense is that they'd be more likely to vote to ban bike on certain roads during rush hour, etc.

At any rate, free societies - particularly democracies - have a hard time dealing with this dilemma (when what is good for the individual is bad for the group). I think there's a formal name for this dilemma, but it escapes me.