Gene you are making a lot of sense.

I tried riding in a centered position by default wherever I could last week and in the end I found it made little difference. Sure on paper you can argue that some of the difficulties experienced when I am to the right could be solved with a more centered position, but I know how to manage those difficulties when I'm riding right-ish. I know how to communicate with a driver under those conditions, and I have other ways of handling the potential problems that can and do arrise.

But riding centered and dealing with people who would like to teach you a lesson or who keep trying to pass you no matter how foolish or whatever is problematic. I find I have less tools to deal with these problems, possibly from lack of experience with it but also from there simply being no tools to deal with people who want to throw stuff at you or scare the bejesus out of you with their horns or whatever. The only thing you can do is ignore, and I'm sorry but if I've already jumped sky high and all my hair is standing on end it's too late to ignore.

What I am trying to say is, at this point in time, every motorist you ask will tell you that slower traffic should keep right and that bikes have to stay to the right as much as possible all the time. Whether that is actually true or they understand it's not always possible makes no difference. This is what they know and what they will yell out the window at you.

They did not learn this from bike lanes but from driving school. It is what is taught to everyone. So even though on paper you can argue that it's not in our best interest to stay to the right all the time, and even though you may be safer not staying to the right, motorists simply do not understand this.

Since they do not understand this, I find that taking a centered position on the road simply is not worth the aggravation most of the time. It's a handy tool to have when you need to block someone behind you, but as a general practice, I found it offers no real benefit to me. TO ME!!!! Your mileage may vary.

Since I as a cyclist am responsible for myself and my own welfare out there, I have learned how to deal with all the problems that can come up from riding off to the right or in a bike lane. Since I have plenty of tools to handle all these problems, the paper arguments against riding this way, while they may make sense on paper, actually present little value in the real world in which I ride. Staying to the right, using bike lanes when available and bike paths when they are useful is actually, in actual real-world practice, what I find works best. The motorists think I'm doing the right thing, they get along with their business without having to deal with me as some kind of problem, I don't have to deal with them getting angry and attempting anything stupid. It all just works better.

So the more I think about this, the more I'm seeing that the lack of motorist training is probably one of the biggest hurdles in getting any kind of vehicular cycling principles to gain general acceptance at all. Even those who understand it, like me, don't find it to be of value when the larger portion of other vehicles out there don't understand it. Until everyone understands it, it will never become a general standard for operating a bicycle.