To ride in the city, to cycle commute, to save gas, to become stronger and extend life. Seems simple right? Well it really is quite simple in fact with proper awareness and in the action experience it will certainly become second nature.
To start, a bicycle is a vehicle, and as a vehicle it should be driven as a vehicle, meaning that just as if you were driving your car, you stop at the lights, you use hand signals and you ride defensively. The defensive driving part when cycle commuting is a necessary step, as not every driver on the road is aware of that fact, and as you are riding you will find them. They are the people that for some reason feel they need to honk the horn, when you are driving as a vehicle and taking the lane. Or the others who find it necessary for some reason to say something stupid, or try and tell you the cycle commuter that you are supposed to be on the sidewalk or you should stay in the lines. These individuals are the ones who make cycle commuting sometimes difficult.
To overcome these annoyances, you need to interpret their stupidity differently, and plan ahead of times, considering that every car could do the same. Driving defensively on a bike is quite important for your own safety. When you expect the drivers to be foolish, at least then you are prepared to act accordingly. It is not to say all drivers will be like that, but it is saying that in driving defensively you are increasing your enjoyment and awareness that cycle commuting provides besides extending life.
City driving, in itself could be stressful at times, through preparation though, you are always ready for the worst as a means to your survival. Biking in the city is a pleasant experience, in the town I live in, I experience the good, the bad and the ugly. In that awareness in that experience gained by first taking that first ride, and continuing time and again. It will certainly not be easy to overcome the initial fear factor until you have miles under your belt. What you will find, is as you become more comfortable in cycling as a vehicle you act as a vehicle. To cycle safely in the city, you must be willing to take the lane when necessary, to use hand signals to make the drivers behind you aware of what you will be doing next. Of course not all will respect that, which is why I keep going back to defensive riding, it is an integral part of driving any type of vehicle including bicycles.
Depending on the city you are in what I have mentioned thus far is only a primer, meaning it is more of an introduction, as each cyclist deals with different circumstances on the given commute. To understand that you are a vehicle, by law a vehicle, not a pedestrian on wheels, or on a toy. Driving in traffic is the best way to be safe and to get where you need to go with your bike. The reward a heavier wallet, because you are saving money that otherwise would go to gas. More and more cities are establishing an infrastructure for bicycling, that is well and good, though for now driving as a vehicle is the best way to be safe. Just as learning to put together a webpage you start with the basics, simple tags to produce the format of the document, in a text file. On a bike you learn by riding, by using the recommended hand signals for turning right, left and the such. Each hand signal is quite simple, usually just using your right or left arm to provide an indication of which direction you expect to go. For example to turn your left you put your left arm straight out, thus indicating you are going to take a left turn. The same for a right turn, putting your right arm out showing your expected route of travel. If you are on a busier road, and most certainly you will deal with some, you can follow the same procedure with a slight modification. You are taking a left turn and the road is busy, so angling the arm down indicates that the car should slow down, this is very important on busy or fast roads. As a bicycle does not have turn signals there are only two ways to indicate your direction of travel. First it is the simple standby of using your arm for left of right and left and down or right and down for slow. The other way is simply to turn your head in the direction of travel, often this is sufficient but I would strongly suggest you use the hand signals at least in the beginning. Besides all of these options are reliant on your ability to keep your direction of travel even when you turn your head. We as people, often use the head to turn and find ourselves going that direction, to remedy this requires some practice on a local playground, or a side road. Once you perfect that you are more able to keep the direction of travel when you are indicating to the other vehicles which way you want to go.
In closing, bicycling safely in a city can be quite simple as understanding and riding as a vehicle using turn signals and remaining predictable. That is how traffic travels smoothly, by driving just as any other vehicle will, enabling each vehicle to be predictable. To be able to know before hand which direction that vehicle expects to go. A bicycle is a vehicle, two wheeled and certainly slower then the rest of the traffic, which is why they have right lanes. Bike paths do exist, and some are better then others. It is sad to say sometimes, how there is just not enough awareness of the fact that a bicycle is a vehicle. Without that awareness infrastructure design is not often optimal, which is why on any bike ride, cycle commute, you need to act just like any other vehicle. To take the lane, following through lanes, and merging with traffic when the bike path, ends up to far right. There is many areas on my own cycle commute that require that point of view. Some examples, well coming off a through road by the name of Boronda, most of it is covered on a right facing bike path, the thing is when I reach the intersection of Main and Boronda in Salinas it is necessary to merge with traffic for a left turn towards my home. Now certainly I could just keep following the bike path, but it takes you off to the right back down main. In making that left turn I first need to use my hand signal for a left turn usually straight out even if it is a busy road. As I make the first move to the far right lane, immediately thereafter I need to move over to the turning lane to the far left of what is the bike lane. In traffic the whole time, I reach the light and if it's red I wait, green I keep going staying within the necessary lane and following through on the sweeping left turn. Once the turn is complete I continue within traffic on a nice little downhill, at the next intersection I take a right to the first intersection and then another right. Each time following the same procedure using hand signals and traveling with traffic as a vehicle. That policy, enables me to be remain predictable and get me where I need to go. That is only one example, but the basic premise is the same. A bicycle is a vehicle and should be ridden as such, making for a better experience and a safer one.