Originally Posted by
ChipSeal
What questions do you mean? I don't understand what this means.
Yes, taking the lane by a cyclist presents the lowest risk profile for a variety of reasons and hazards when compared to riding to the right, riding on the fog line and riding on the shoulder. The relative advantage of taking the lane increases as the closing speed of overtaking traffic increases. So you got that part right.
A cyclist and a fixed object are perceived identically by an automobile operator traveling at speed. A motorist will take great care and give all his attention to avoid colliding with a stationary object. It would be unusual for a motorist to overlook any object in his path.
He will commonly not perceive objects adjacent to his path. This tunnel vision effect increases when the motorist is distracted from the task at hand. A distracted motorist is more likely to drift out of his lane. He is also more likely to drift to the right than to the left.
A fixed object, and a cyclist, are equally at risk of being hit by traffic if they are both on the same portion of the lane or shoulder. But that risk becomes less the further into the travel lane they go. The chances of being struck in any case is low, as experienced cyclists like Widsith (Years of shoulder riding) and I-Like-To-Bike (Years of taking the lane.) can testify.
Tragedy has struck cyclists in the lane, like the Virginia Beach death and on a shoulder, as in the case of poor Mr. Kunz. So neither extreme position can be described as safe.
You need to go read the book "Traffic, why we drive the way we do" (Vanderbilt) and see the discussion of the how speed effects perception and why motorists often have plowed right into large slow moving traffic on roads... such as cement trucks and garbage trucks and Amish buggies. Also note that rear end collisions are the majority type collision in the US. Also note the discusssion regarding how our human visual system has limits when we move over 25MPH and how this effects our perception of objects moving at much slower speeds.
BTW this book compiles oddles and oddles of real research, (just see the huge bibliography) not just ancedotes like those from your self and a hand full of others.