If billh is right, then one thing that the bike lane stripe accomplishes is that motorists "know" where the cyclist is going to be - in the bike lane on his side of the stripe. This tends to alleviate their responsibility (both legally and intuitively) from having to pass the cyclist with as safe a passing margin as they would when there is no stripe. After all, as long as both the motorist and the cyclist stay on their respective sides of the stripe, there can be no problem. If you watch traffic on a road with bike lanes, you just watch the motorists. Almost none of them adjust their position as they pass cyclists in the adjacent bike lane, even the ones driving near the right edge of their lane, even when the cyclists are riding near the left edge of the bike lane (or even on the stripe as they often do). That is the effect of the stripe: motorists behave as if the cyclists are not even there.

That is not at all the case in a WOL because in a WOL there is no stripe separating the motorists from the cyclists. If you watch traffic in a WOL you will see motorists consistenly slow down and adjust their positions as they pass any cyclists, particularly if the cyclists are not hugging the right edge but are riding about 3 feet to the right of traffic. This is the effect of the absence of a stripe: motorists behave as if they actually are consciously aware of and concerned about the cyclist's presence "in their lane" as a significant event.

Remember, in the case of a WOL, the cyclist has the right-of-way in the motorist's lane. When he is in a separate bike lane, he has no right-of-way in the motorist's lane. This is not only a legal technicality, for it makes a real intuitive difference when a motorist sees a cyclist up ahead in the motorist's lane, rather than in a separate bike lane.

So dodging a pot hole in a WOL is generally safer because any passing motorists are likely to be passing slower (which means they are less likely to reach you during your swerve around the hole, and are more likely to be able to slow enough to not hit you) and/or with a wider passing margin, than when they are passing cyclists in an adjacent and separate bike lane.

Also, in a WOL the cyclist is keeping a buffer of clean pavement to his right that is often not available in a bike lane. Therefore, emergency reflexive responses are more likely to be left when in a bike lane than when in a WOL.

That's the difference.

Does that answer your question?