I wish this were true. I have heard this, read it, and tried it. The fact is that if you are on a busy road bicycling at 16 mph in a lane where motor vehicles are moving at 45 mph,
you are going to get hit eventually.
You see it in the drivers' faces when one driver goes around you and the next car zip up behind you and screech on the brakes. Their eyes are huge and dilated and you can read their lips shouting "OH SHEEEET!!!" as they thank God they didn't just cream the crazy bicyclist.
You can argue from your hospital bed that you had the right to be on the road, just like a motor vehicle and you will be right by the law.
In a world where motorists run into buses
, the chance of them running into bicyclists also exists. In order to extend our bicycling days, it is prudent to use common sense.