"How come there are so many crashes? What's wrong with the roads these days?"
Questions like this erupt - in your home and mine, at work-places, coffee shops - anywhere where we gather to talk. They are all over the internet - in blogs like this, in chat-rooms.
We are quick to name our pet hate as the party who made it so - truckers, cabbies, cyclists, the fool engineers who don't design roads right - in fact we spread blame over every one except the guilty parties - and, if we think about it, we know one of them well - only too well.
Who? Look in the mirror - see that face grimacing back at you? That's one of the guilty parties.

The sad truth is that no amount of engineering can make our roads safe - as long as we reserve to ourselves the "right" to do as we please on the road. I'll rephrase that: I am one of the guilty parties to making our roads dangerous. So are you, gentle reader. No - I'm not saying you are a horrible person, dashing out to see how many you can kill or maim today, any more than I am. But we are both (on occasion) careless. We both (on occasion) show less good judgement than we should. We are both of us, in all probability, technically under-trained at the wheel.  I know I was, back in 1960, when I was sent up for my official road-test with not more than five or six hours of road-time as a car-driver. The first hour had been spent (successfully) in mastering the Three-Pedal Two-Step - the art of juggling gas, clutch, and brake to allow the car to start up and stop without stalling the engine - and without rolling back downhill at a stop on an up-grade. Shifting gears (today, it's seen as a difficult process, taking far too much of a driver's time to be safe) rapidly became automatic - sufficiently so that, faced one evening with a panic-stop from 50 MPH, I realised, after I and the truck-driver facing me had stopped safely to give some Lead-footed Larry the whole road - each on our own side of the highway, that I'd not only brought the car to a halt, on the shoulder, but that I had down-shifted twice in the process. I've no recollection of it - but there I was stopped, with the car in second (of 4) gear, and the clutch in, engine idling - all my reactions to the vision of a head-on collision at around 100 MPH combined speed had been automatic.

Most of us do not pay enough attention to the road around us - and discover, with a sense of shock, that we don't have the traction we thought we did- be it ice, or snow, or rain - or even a broad swath of traffic paint in an intersection. We see a steel plate on the road - and shy uncontrollably at it, because we've been taught it's uncontrollably slippery. In short, we do not remember to drive what is right in front of us, and adjust our driving to match. Yes - I've been caught short on occasion - very seldom, and never seriously - just enough to remind me to pay better attention. For instance, I recall driving a winding chunk of local rural highway one day, and entering a dropping right-hand curve just a little too fast. As i reacted to this, I suddenly felt that the back of the van I was driving was very close to breaking loose, and trying to overtake the front - in the opposing lane. My reaction - lift that foot from the brake, keep it off the gas, and STEER, like crazy. We exited the curve very slightly wide - where the right side had been on the fog-line, the left side was now almost over the centre-line. As I said, a near-run call. Similarly, I've been caught out on ice or snow, occasionally - just a little shudder to remind me to pay more attention. I have been fortunate in my choice of passenger/co-pilot/navigator. She has a sense of distance, and will react if I get too close - a slight tensing of the body, or an intake of breath, and I react to these as I do to other outside input. Definitely, the second pair of eyes has helped make me safer.

Slavish adherence to posted limits can be dangerous. There are times when conditions are such that even driving under the posted limit can be far too fast. Years ago, I was returning home in Vancouver, BC from a trip out across the Fraser River to the east of the city, and the fog was so dense along the highway that I could only see the fog-line to my right, or the lane marker to my left - not both, and the only reason I felt that 30 MPH was safe was that I had a set of tail-lights in my sight - and that was the speed he was driving, so we both made reasonable progress.
On the other side of the limit - Vancouver, BC has a posted limit of 30 MPH/50 Km/H on all streets. There are arterial ones, though, where traffic regularly moves at 40 MPH/65Km/H, as long as it's moving freely. The traffic lights - say the signs, are synchronized for the posted limit. However, I quickly discovered that it was far, far safer to travel with the flow than to slavishly follow the posted limits, that I would make all the lights comfortably. I have even noticed that police, on traffic regulation, will encourage drivers to keep up, rather than slowing down when we see them.

So - what I've realised - and experience, travelling in other cities tends to bear this out - is that Driving is actually a dance-form. There are universally recognised steps, but also local variants, customs, that we must learn and use, if we want to pass as "just traffic" rather than stick out like tourists or lost souls. Again, this calls for observation, feel, and judgement. Driving is far more than just the business of knowing what the controls are, and how to use them, more than just knowing what the laws are. You also have to watch like a hawk - look at nothing, and see everything. You must observe the hints of an impending action - like the cyclist doing quick shoulder checks as you come up to a corner - so that he can gauge when it's safe to set up his left-turn (more on this later).

How can a cyclist fit into this - given that he's out there, playing with stuff that upwards of 20 times his own mass? How can he possibly feel safe?
Part of that answer is - thee's no way he can "feel safe", in absolute terms. However, there are things he can do to feel as safe as it is possible to be - an acceptable level of risk, as it were. I should know - I've been a cyclist since 1954 - and there are very few roads I will not ride along. There are more I will avoid, if I can - but that's, again, a matter of acceptable risk.
What should I, as a cyclist, do? In the simplest terms - drive that bike like the driver you are. The more nearly I exhibit as just a driver, the less hassle I get. It takes very little to get there - no great amount of fancy clothing, no fancy, expensive bike (Unless you are an elite-level rider, there is very little practical difference between bikes, as long as it's suitable for the job, and fits you.)
I wear clothing that is reflective - a yellow jacket, or a safety vest. If I'm using leggings in cool weather, they have reflective bands around them. I have lights, fore and aft, on the bike, and I have them on, day or night. After all, if ADRL's make cars and trucks more visible in the day-time, would not the same reasoning apply, in spades, to myself on a bike? I obey the helmet laws - not because they make me safe - they don't do a thing for me when I pile-drive into the side of a car, or throw myself under the wheels of a passing dump-truck. But that helmet DOES do one thing - it reduces, minimizes, the severity of any head injury I may incur WHEN I fall (not if - falling is guaranteed. We only have some control over where or when.) I should know - I have fallen a number of times, and struck my head two or three times since i started wearing a skid-lid.

I mentioned that cyclist, frantically glancing over his shoulder as he gets nearer the intersection where he wants to turn. There IS a way to set that turn up - the "vehicular" way. It does take a bit of raw courage - especially the first time, though, once you get the hang of it, it becomes automatic and easy. The secret is to set the turn up far enough in advance - depending on the street and traffic, half a block or more ahead of the left-turn lane, or the corner itself. You start by making your SIGNAL - left arm out-stretched from the shoulder, and kept out. THEN you shoulder-check (using a mirror can be just as good) to see if traffic (t only takes ONR driver) will let you out - when someone does - slows, flicks his lights - GO - to the edge of the lane. If there's another lane, REPEAT (Blanshard, for instance, has three or four lanes) until you get into the turn lane, or arrive at the corner. If you are the first one there - go right up to the stop line, and STOP - if there's a mark on the road, for the "sweet spot", stop on it. If there are others in front of you (Life is OH! so tough!!) stop in the middle of the lane, behind the last one. Carry on. If there's no turn-advantage signal, pull into the intersection - keep that signal out  -until you can go. That's all there is to it. SO WHAT, if there are cars passing to your right from behind you. Those drivers can see you, and they know what you are trying to do. You now have traffic from ONE direction to worry about - the ones coming towards you - and you are looking at them. Id someone cedes you Right of Way - accept it, graciously.. After all, you are asking no more than you would, trying to make that corner in a car, are you?

But, you ask, how can I respond fast, to traffic like that? OK - here's another trick that makes it easier: GEAR DOWN, as you come to that stop - my favourite spot is middle chain-ring, in-most gear on the cluster - in mechanical terms, it's about a 40" gear, small enough to give you rapid acceleration, high enough that you don't run out of pedal speed before you clear the intersection, and you can always gear up if you need. Train yourself (it only took me a couple of days, twenty-some years ago, once I'd decided to do so) and it will become fully automatic - part of the experience of mindful cycling. Remember to watch for pedestrians - we have to stop for them, as well. You know you've arrived when you signal you're stopping, and the drivers behind you stop, too. The same applies to emergency vehicles.

So - driving or cycling - we have only ONE job - to be the very best driver we can be. We do that, and the roads will seem so much safer - for us, and for everyone around us. The answer to road safety is really in our own hands. If WE aren't safe - no engineering can make us safe - at least as long as we must operate the vehicle ourselves. If we do, we'll be as safe as we can be - and our vehicle insurance will reflect that.