I agree, I think you get more respect/room if you are assertive.

Our law in Wyoming says to ride "as far to the right as is practicable" or something, and with all the gravel on the roads in the spring, it's not always "practicable" to be on the shoulder.

In town, and it gets to be a really busy town each summer, I stay way right if I'm going slower than traffic, but if I'm moving at the speed of traffic on the narrow downtown streets with cars parked to my right, I take over the whole freakin' lane with big ol' signals and a wide smile. Yeah, check out my legs, look at how much fun I'm having, way more than you in that car...

At Zion's early century last year, Yellow taught me the "Have a nice day" phrase to yell at traffic that got too close/spun out/almost killed us. Makes for a better mindset than screaming "You @*#&#$&#*!@!!!!"