Effective Cycling by John Forester

While I find his writing to be bitter and disillusioned and combative, he does have some good points.

Cars don't like us passing on the right because that makes us unpredictable. We are breaking a "rule" if we do this at an intersection, so they get pissy just like they would if a car did this. If I'm in a road with just a few cars, I take my place in a lane with the other traffic to hold my spot through the intersection, then get back onto the shoulder once I'm through. If there is a ton of traffic and other bikes around, I treat the shoulder like an HOV lane.... see ya, suckers! And if it's a real bike lane all the way, I'm treating it like an HOV lane.

The disappearing bike lane (whittling down to a point) is an attempt to FORCE bike to take their rightful place in the line of traffic, and hold it through the intersection until the bike lane miraculously reappears on the other side.

According to Forester (and in my experience he's been right) it is terribly dangerous to be to the right of vehicles while going through an intersection.