Originally Posted by The B

That's awesome that it's in an ODOT pamphlet, and that right there could get you out of a ticket if you happened to run into a dick Portland Cop who doesn't like bicyclists.. but the actual law, the ORS, says only as homeboy said- ride in traffic if you're going traffic speed, otherwise you're to stay as far to the right as safely possible. Nothing in the ORS that authorizes you to take full command of the lane, for any reason, if traffic is going substantially faster than you.

I personally think you could make a very strong argument for the philosophy- "as safe as possible actually dictated that I take the whole lane, to avoid being struck by motorists making unsafe attempts to 'squeeze.'" But that's obviously open to interpretation. The law doesn't explicitly support you there.