Quote Originally Posted by TraderJane View Post
Just curious, what is wrong with hugging the curb?
Basically it makes you invisible. You are out of drivers' sight, or at least out of their range of "attentive vision." (Not that drivers are already paying a whole lot of attention, but that's a different problem.) They might happen to look in your direction but you're not any more relevant to them than a pedestrian on the sidewalk. Also, if you're already hugging the curb and a car buzzes by you, you have nowhere to go. In fact, I find that drivers give me about as much room on my left as I am taking on my right. So I generally ride about 3 or 4 feet away from the curb or parked cars (to stay out of the door zone). Being hit from behind is extremely rare.

http://bicyclesafe.com/ is a very good web site for basic cycling safety. A lot of that is counterintuitive but much safer than what our intuition tricks us into doing.

Good luck and we look forward to hearing more (happier) adventures!