Originally Posted by
lostarchitect
I don't really think either of these are a concern.
1. This doesn't really make any sense, even on the raciest of racy road bikes you are higher up than in a car.
2. I have never found this to be the case at all, but no matter what bike you ride, having a mirror in city traffic is a good idea. I have a Take-A-Look, which is a small mirror you can attach to your helmet or glasses.
On the raciest of race bikes your eyes are positioned to see the road directly in front of you really well, so you don't necessarily get the benefit of seeing the driver's face/body position/ car behavior as well until you sit up and look around.
And this goes back to the handling thing, not everyone is good at managing a super racy bike. Turning tends to be "easy" which might also be "twitchy" if you are a newer cyclist. It usually takes more concentration to keep it straight, and you might lose a bit looking behind you! Especially if you are new to that riding style.
It's also important to note that "road bike" does not automatically mean a carbon fiber racing bike. It is a category that spans from that, to touring bikes with very stable handling and wide tires. I would not typically recommend a racing bike for commuting because it's hard to fit fenders, racks, etc, and the geometry is aggressive. But there are lots of road bikes I would recommend.
I noted in my post that an aggressive road bike isn't a great fit, but less aggressive setups would be fine, focusing on the saddle height / handlebar height being about even.
I think "drop bar bikes" all look the same to many people, so it helps to know some additional visual cues.