The Willful Surrender of the Road

Road Sharing (& drafting - not recommended)It seems really clear to me that every time you cede the roadway to the auto, the bicycle loses twice what it actually gives up. It seems like the cyclists who love the 'take the lane' (be a road hog) strategy are the same ones wanting special bike infrastructure that separates them from the road.
I have considered why people have a fear of sharing the road with autos. Living in Cincinnati, it's kind of hard to get out into the country. I grew up in a smaller community where getting onto a rural highway was pretty easy. Before I could drive, I was riding up & down RT68 to Urbana & Yellow Springs. There was about a foot of pavement to the right of the white edge line. Cars, pickups & semis gliding by at 60MPH…
The notion of sharing the road was also reinforced as motorists had to contend with slow moving farm machinery on the rural roads.
Are the Cincinnatians afraid of the road just 'city slickers'?
People who just ride for recreation, sure bike paths are fine, but if you want to get somewhere, Chillicothe maybe, you are going to have to ride with traffic & the motorists are going to have to know how to deal with the cyclists.
When cyclists continually cede their rightful place on the road, it just empowers the motorists to monopolize the road. heck, look at what they've done to thousands of years of tradition in 100 years.
The argument of 'safety' is just a common tool used to achieve other agendas and you will see both cyclists and motorists use that 'argument'.
CYCLISTS - to keep your rightful place on the road - USE IT!. Hiding and being obnoxious won't help at all.
The clip above is from the movie, Breaking Away.