Take the road!

You are more visible - and on a lot of descents I can go faster than a car.

I read a great book recently, The Art of Urban Cycling

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/076...Fencoding=UTF8

While it's called "Urban" a lot of what it discusses can equally be applied in more rural settings. It gets into history, psychology and sociology, and provides safety suggestions and tips for riding with cars. Great book!