Originally Posted by chephy

It's not enough to never pull a stupid stunt. You have to know the stupid stunts others pull, expect stupid stunts from others on the road and have bail-out space. Always. When I'm riding and some traffic situation catches me by surprise - I know I'm not paying enough attention and not doing the thinking for me and everyone around me as I should.

You can't just count on people to give you space. Sometimes you'll just have to take the space by moving further to the left. I don't know where you live and ride - this works best in slower urban riding environments (as opposed to fast country and suburban roads). But at the very least though you should always know who's on your back and whether that person is pulling far enough to the left to pass you. Mirrors help. And yes, you gotta watch driveways and intersections and if there is a car there, expect the drive to pull out and watch the car's body language, so to speak, and have escape routes and be ready to bail out. You gotta be especially careful when it's wet out.. if you do not have disk brakes, slowing down, especially around other traffic, may be wise.

I'm not trying to say you're careless or a bad cyclist or anything. You could be a way better and cautious cyclist than I for all I know. But it sounds as if you perhaps rely too much on other road users to be smart and corteous and safe around you. To some degree it's unavoidable, of course. But often one can take steps to take more of one's destiny into one's own hands. A cycling course could actually be helpful.