I'll put another thought forward on this, and I guess you can flame me if you want to.

We all are encouraged to practice vehicular cycling, yet if we ride in pace lines we are all guilty of following too closely.

I have a friend who works for the DPS (highway patrol) in the Austin, TX area. He put it to me pretty much like this

......" bicycle riders want to be treated like vehicles and have cars treat them like vehicles. Then they get out here on the road and run in packs inches off each other at 30mph. Something goes wrong and somebody gets hurt real bad at that speed. And, oh yeah, it's the guy in back who is at fault by following too close, not allowing time to stop, and plowing into someone. It's hard to have much sympathy........"

I hate to admit it, but from a legal standpoint he's probably correct.