Why do you think drivers can see you? Because they have headlights? .
I assume you mean on those moonlit rides?
I assume cars coming behind me can see me because I have a pair of tail lights flashing out of sequence with each other. I sometimes use a tiny white blinkie facing forward, sometimes not, but I am not too worried about approaching cars.
As for side streets most of the roads I ride that way have no side street which is why I am willing to risk it. However, there are driveways. I use my senses and common sense when riding lights or no lights. If I am approaching a side street with a car emerging, even if I am using my 500-lumen headlight, I assume I am invisible to the driver. if I were to be riding with no headlight and a car was going to pull out (it has Never happened but could) I would be forced to stop or at least slow and either let it go, or turn on my light.
Much as with riding without a helmet ... people think that anyone who rides without lights must be an idiot. Fact is, sometimes I am but Not while riding at night with or without lights. Idiot bike riders don't tend to last long. I got rid of my training wheels about fifty years ago. If I were just phenomenally lucky i would have hit the lottery by now ... so maybe I am not an idiot but think differently than you?
Let's say I'm driving a car, and I pull into the intersection. You are riding on the cross street. You crash into the side of my car, I never saw you.
Whether you, in your car, have your lights on or not, I can use my ninja senses to detect .. A freaking Automobile! Think this through. What you suggest is that Because I Don't Have Lights, I Cannot See a Car??? Think it through?
Either you really think I am too stupid to ride a bike at all (in which case you would be pretty stupid to try to engage me in a logical discussion) or you really didn't think this one through.
As I said above, and I think as any cyclist who has ridden in traffic more than about five times and survived has learned, you never take it for granted that cars pulling onto the road notice you, even in broad daylight, even at night with a 500-lumen headlight plus an added blinkie ... and pretty much any cyclist who T-boned a car in that situation, dark or lights, day or night, would be deserving of a punch from The Fist of Darwin.
Your other scenario is the same. if a cyclist rams a car turning at an intersection, he deserves to be smacked down with Darwin's Hammer, for the good of the rest of the human race. In that case the issue wouldn't be that the driver could not see the bike, but that the rider was a moron.
Please, do yourself a favor and don't keep debating people you think are morons.