My latest theory is that commuters are the ones responsible for most my close passes. These are people who drive the road every day and have their commute timed down to the minute and won't tolerate any hold-ups whatsoever. These drivers are best avoided by staying off roads that people commute on, at least during typical commute hours.

Unfortunately, when commuter traffic thins, you have "old people traffic", and some of these people can be quite nasty too, just not as impatient. Then you have evening traffic and weekend traffic consisting of a certain percentage of drunks and, and sometimes bored kids playing pranks, but generally mellower.

So I dunno, pick your poison. I can say though that if you really want some good riding, wake up really early on a Sunday morning, and you will often have some of the busiest roads all to yourself.