Interesting discussion, thanks for your responses.

I will try to get a look at JF's book... I consider myself a pretty safe, confident cyclist, but sometimes, like all of us, I am in situations where I really feel intimidated by traffic... usually deliberately aggressive/dickhead drivers. Only a couple of days ago, a car came within millimitres, and I really do mean a couple of millimetres, of hitting another car when overtaking me in a clearly unsafe situation. Both going at about 60, so combined impact speed of 120mph. They only would have clipped, but still... what a ****.

I don't know that much about JF's principles, but I do try to 'ride like a car', instead of cowering by the kerb. If I feel unsafe I will quite happily ride in the middle of the road and create a situation where it is physically impossible for a car to overtake me without killing me. I can certainly see the objections to cycle lanes, and why they encourage sloppy/dangerous driving.