This! I actually take busier streets a lot of the time, both because they are better designed, but often they aren't as hilly as the side streets. Here in Seattle the roads are crap. At least on my route from Greenwood to First Hill, even in the rare places where they aren't potholed, rough, or badly cracked, there are often seams every five feet or so, as well as seams running parallel to the path you are traveling, which can be treacherous even to bikes with pretty wide tires.

Although I took several years off from cycling when I was really poor and had a bus pass from work and lived and worked right on bus routes, I've been cycling again almost daily for almost two years now and only traveled by cycle for six years before that break. That included two years as a courier. As long as my brakes are working okay, and I've got my Airzoundz, I'm basically confidant in my skills and don't really worry about traffic.

Whether I am in the lane, the bike lane, or over to the edge of the lane varies street by street, and a significant factor in that is the condition of the actual road surface. There are several blocks where I'd prefer to be in the middle or even the left of the lane, but the road is so rutted that I'm actually forced over to the right so some cars thing they have room to squeeze by me. The most frustrating thing about this, is that everywhere else in the city it seems that the bike lane or over on the right when there is room is where the roughest part of the road is!

I'll have to mark "other" on the poll. What concerns me the most these days is pedestrians. Not the ones who don't look, or assume that I'll weave out in to traffic to avoid them, it's the crazy ones that worry me. Maybe it's because I work in the ER and I see a lot of crazy people and some of them threaten to hurt or kill me if they see me outside work, but the insane people wandering into the street when the light is red or on the sidewalk or bus benches as I slowly climb the hills around here are what I worry most about.

The classic cyclist danger I probably worry most about is getting doored. I've yet to be doored yet, but this is my constant fear. Most of the "bike lanes" here are actually the same space that cars open their doors into. I can't express enough how much I love my Safe Zone helmet mirror, it lets me get out into the road away from these bombs when no one is approaching from behind.

I also regularly run red lights. For a variety of reasons, sometimes I don't feel like waiting for a light when I am cycling home at 0400 and there is no one else out. Sometimes it is easier to roll through a five way Stop signed intersection than stop and wait for five cars to figure out who is going next and then inevitably dodge two or three of them. I also often go just before a light turns green if there isn't cross traffic at that moment. It's safer to get out in the road ahead of the cars and establish that you are there with them than try and merge as they all take off from the light and are trying to pass you.