Intersection navigation questions

[Biciclista]

Well, that's just not my experience when I see them nodding and smiling, pointing and waving, after I signal and position myself. I tend to make very exaggerated signals though, so maybe they feel mysteriously compelled to respond to me when I look at them and broadly signal my traffic intentions.
I live in a rural town area but with lots of county highways with plenty of commuter traffic and trucks of all kinds.
Perhaps drivers are truly more clueless where you ride, or other factors are at work resulting in our different experiences.

I wouldn't say they are more clueless, they are more oblivious perhaps, and Eden probably is doing a lot of riding in the dark! when you can not depend on a smile or a wave to be seen by a half asleep person on his/her way to work.

[hipmama]

The way I've learned- and through bike/traffic safety classes, is ride like you are a car- which would put me in behind a car in the lane going forward. You're much more likely to get clipped going between lanes or going forward in a right turn lane. Take the lane when you can.

[Zen]

I can answer regarding the second question.When I'm with my Cat Challenge training group we have to cross a highway like that.
After you've crossed the first set of lanes wait on the right side of the median area, just like a car would.

[Geonz]

When it's one lane, I will sometimes scoot to the right and up to the front when the cars to my left are some-turning-left and some-going-straight, and the cars opposite are likewise. This puts me out front and visible instead of behind a car. However, at these intersections there are generally 2-3 cars going my way, so they are all past me by the time I'm through the intersection (unless they're turning left), so merging isn't a problem. There's one intersection where I would end up in the middle of a wide intersection on a yellow if I started from the back, 'cause the cycle is short... and I remember that Virginia chick who got creamed by a police car anticipating a green and accelerating before she had cleared the intersection (and then ticketing her for the hazardous materials -her blood, etc - that had to be cleaned from his car... but they did get rather bad press on that account).
However, for the most part I wait in line and would definitely do so in a group, where quantity makes us more visible. (Trying to remember when last I did that...)