> A cycle is far, far easier to maneuver to avoid an accident than a truck.

No, it isn't. Most all four-wheeled vehicles traveling at 25mph can stop much, much more quickly than a bicycle traveling at 25mph simply because they have a large total contact patch and antilock braking technology. A maneuver you might pull with a 4-wheeled motor vehicle behind you because they can probably slam on their brakes in time to keep from running into you will usually result in the cyclist smashing into the back of you and being seriously injured.

They can turn more sharply at speed, and they can accelerate much more quickly too.

> Around here, they painted stripes for a bike lane. Good.

As someone who tries to use them here and there, I generally don't view painted stripes being passed off as "cycling infrastructure" as a good thing.

> Then the cyclists like to ride on the stripe, and randomly weave back and forth across it.

Some cyclists are better than others at signaling before switching lanes. I used to be better about it before a motorist ignored my outstretched hand and broke it in two places once because they were trying really, really hard to stay in their lane rather than thinking about giving me the space I needed. That taught me that it's safer to just plop my butt directly in front of them when I need them to slow down or give me more space to pass.

> As a driver, I have to spend all my attention trying not to hit those suicidal cyclists, who never look back to see if it is clear when they drift into the car lane. It's madness. I don't understand them at all.

It can be perfectly rational and safer. The most dangerous situation for me is when a motorist disregards me. As in, they snap-judge that I'm somehow negligible, and they can continue in their zoned-out state of mind as they maneuver a multi-ton chunk of steel at a high speed around me. Cyclists are often run off the road or clipped by motorists whose brains don't register that they're something they need to pay attention to.

When I'm cycling on the road, I do everything I can to "throw an exception" in the minds of motorists around me. Override System 1, and get their System 2 to take over -- for those familiar with the book Thinking, Fast and Slow. This almost always means riding much further to the left than one might instinctively ride.

Now getting to "bike lanes" -- a term that I don't really like that much because it implies that it's the only lane I should be using at any point in time. And because "bike lanes" are actually car infrastructure, if you think about it. But that aside, "bike lanes" are often better described as "door zones." They're often painted right next to parked motor vehicles, and virtually nobody checks to make sure there isn't an oncoming cyclist before they suddenly fling their doors open. Many cyclists have been killed or seriously injured as they've been flung into faster-moving traffic in the adjacent lane when that happens.

When I'm approaching a parked motor vehicle, My objective is not to stay within the paint on the road at all, because it's just paint. Instead I'm judging how wide the door of the parked vehicle would be when it's suddenly flung open, and move to the left by that distance plus maybe an extra foot as a safety measure. Often that means I'm crossing out of the "bike lane." If I'm doing that I will signal and merge into the lane next to me as safely as I can, but there's often a large differential between my speed and that of motorists in the lane next to me, as "bike lanes" encourage.

That means the approaching motorist will need to be prepared to slow down, assess when it is safe to pass, and then move over far enough to pass so that there's at least 3 feet of space between me and their vehicle.

System 1 tells motorists to "stay in their lane" and "keep going at speed." Motorists doing that end up "buzzing" me, risking hitting me with their side mirrors, or worse. So for my own safety in that situation I have to arrest that in as clear terms as I can. That usually means moving all the way into the center of the lane, directly in front of them. Once I've taken the option to "buzz" me while staying in their lane away from them, they either slow down and wait until road conditions are safe for me to move back to the right lane, or they allow the switch in their brain for "I must leave my lane to pass" to activate, which generally results in them giving me more space as they pass.

Yes, snapping our of your System 1 is uncomfortable. I'd rather your System 1 just assumed that a cyclist would be traveling in the regular wider lane at any time, rather assume that the cyclist will always be neatly and conveniently tucked away in the nearly-invisible "bike lane." It seems unsafe. But the alternatives, riding in the door zone or encouraging motorists to try to squeeze by at speed, really result in a less-safe situation.