Originally Posted by
genec
If drivers cannot see and make allowances for objects as big as a car, what makes you think they will see you any better?
My on the road experience is that when on the bike in the middle of the lane I'm such an oddity (around here anyways) that it commands attention that "just another car" could never get. It's like alarms go off in their head.
OMG, it's a guy on a pedal bike directly in my path... wtf is he doing! 
At stop lights drivers approach slowly and stay far back. I suspect other oddities like pink elephants and UFO's dropping down from space would be seen and treated with more care than just another car also.
If there were hundreds of cyclists in the lane on my routes I suspect this "special notice and care" would change.
Originally Posted by
kickstart
And motorcycles.
I've been rear ended twice on a motorcycle in circumstances where it could have been a bicycle too.
The only time I was hit by a car on a bike was while in a MUP cross walk. Had I been in the lane I likely would not have been missed, and would have been treated with more care. Especially notable is that I do THOUSANDS of miles of in lane riding for every mile I do on a MUP.