Originally Posted by
I-Like-To-Bike
Anecdotes about an alleged history of "lane taking" reducing risk from close passes that lead to collisions, let alone any reduction in overall bicycling risk do not become more convincing with constant repetition, nor by use of enlarged blue typefaces, nor by citing unproven/unsubstantiated bicycling safety theory on the topic from Vehicular Cycling Promoters/ideologues.
Yet in the absence of good objective data personal experience and anecdotes are all we have to go on. Because our daily experience is repeated over and over again, hundreds of times a year, and perhaps thousands of times over the course of a lifetime of riding where we observe driver behaviour riding the way we do, our anecdotes become a data set. Perhaps not one that would stand up to stringent scientific scrutiny, but nonetheless valid to our own decision-making process.
From my own 'data' I can definitively say that riding further out has reduced the number of close passes I get. But I will say that there are some roads that I wouldn't want to take the lane for an extended period of time. I am fortunately that I don't have to commute on very busy multi-lane arterial roads.