My commute is 13 miles of mostly-flat, straight paved road. about 1/2 the route has a shoulder, but 3/4 of that is full of gravel and debris, so I try to stay close and inside the white line. I wear visible colors and never ride before dawn or past dusk. I obey all traffic laws and ride defensively. Signal turns and be predictable to cars. No sidewalk riding, always wear a helmet. I do NOT weave or "funnel" through cars, because frankly, I don't much like playing sandwich with 2 ton cars, getting honked at, or getting in trouble with a cop.

In Idaho, cyclists can legally treat stop signs (not red lights) as "yield" signs so as to not slow traffic, so I do that quite a bit. I don't have to deal with major highways except for 3 quick crossings, and other than that I am either on an arterial, in a parking lot, or on bike pathway.

Most drivers pass safely in my area but some people are just idiots. As such, I am always on lookout for inattentive (zoned, bored, tired) drivers. One way I like to make sure they see and pass me safely is the take the lane when they're coming up behind me (with the speed limits on the route, they ARE going to pass) and then retreat to the white line only after I can tell they see me and start a safe pass (definition: all the way into the other lane, just as if they were passing another car). That way we have plenty of room.

I think the most dangerous drivers I've encountered before I adopted the above strategy were pickup trucks and SUVs. Just because of their sheer size and vision block, they are intimidating to cyclists - and motorists' behavior in these vehicles reflects that fact that all to often they don't take into account that they are driving a boat. Once, a pickup started to pass me with maybe 2 feet of room to spare (I was on the white line!) and he was driving way above the speed limit. I was intimidated and rode over into the steep gravel shoulder which caused me to lose traction and fall at about 15mph and deep cut my left knee. The driver had to have seen me crash but just kept going. Fortunately most people are not like that.

So the lesson, just like people have talked about in this thread, is the drive defensively, legally, always take the lane during passes and at intersections to keep from being run over, and ALWAYS keep you head up and eyes peeled!