Originally Posted by Helmet Head
Just curious, have you taken such a course?
Well, I started to. I wanted to go on a road ride with a local outdoorsy club, and you have to take a bicycle safety course before they'll let you, this being the land of liability, so I went. By the second class, I realized that I knew much more than necessary to pass their test, so I just stopped going.
I don't have a car, and ride my bike virtually everywhere I go, so I have quite a bit of experience riding in traffic. It took me only a few days of riding among cars to figure out the basics of VC, and since then, I haven't had any serious safety problems. I really do think that, for anyone with average intelligence, it's analogous to learning to use use snow shoes: get on the bike and ride.