Safety guidelines for cycling in traffic
A lot of cyclists promote vehicular cycling in which you act just like a car, obeying all of the rules of the road.  This includes respecting all stop signs &amp; lights, travelling in the same direction on the same side of the road as motorized traffic, and using the full lane (taking the lane), often ignoring marked bike lanes if they are too small or marginalized.

To me, vehicular cycling means acting like you belong on the road and that you have the legal right to be there (which you do).  I think a lot of bicycle accidents happen because the cyclist is trying to stay out of the way of cars and in doing so becomes very difficult for cars to see.