I live in a suburban area with relatively busy traffic which picks up for rush hour and when schools let out. Its in central Georgia, in Peachtree City, relatively hilly, some routes hillier than others. 30 to 45 mph speed limits, and some roads so hilly with so many bind turns that Ive never seen a cyclist on and would never ride myself. Now, the weird thing about this place where I live is that there are over 100 miles of pedestrian, bicycle and golf cart paths... everyone in this town owns and drives a golf cart. I ride on the paths to go to the grocery store run errands etc. on my Schwinn Crosscut. But, the paths are really death traps for cyclists, especially if you have toe clamps because the law in town is that a 15 year old with a learners permit can drive alone and a 12 year old can drive with anyone over 21 accompanying them. And teenagers and 12 yearolds drive like its GTA 4. Even on the Crosscut with a full load of crap on the bike people have come around blind turns in their golf carts or bikes on the wrong side of the path and almost collided with me. The good thing about the bicycle is that I can ride a bike a lot faster than a golf cart can go and if some kid says something unsavory about me on the bike I can respond with my water bottle and burn rubber. This is a big topic of contention among myself and my non-cycling friends who think sharing the road is a nuesence and that people should just use the cart paths. But to me its more dangerous to be on the death paths than the road. Kind of as a result of there being cart paths, drivers feel that cyclists should "get on the f-ing cart paths" so I try to ride where there arent any or I just yell back at them "Is this where you want to be when Jesus comes back?" But that kind of sucks.
So when I want to get on the road bike, Redline Conquest, and really hammer down the road, I avoid the cart paths like a kid playing lava tag. When Im on the road I stop at big intersections and if I cant see on coming traffic or if there is on coming traffic. If I can see the intersection is clear I will blow right through it. The only stop lights I encounter are at busy 55 mph state highways so I just stop and wait for a car to trip the sensor and I dont pull that stuff where people pass a big line of cars to get to the front of the line at a red light, however I do that when I ride in Atlanta. There is almost never space between the white line and the shoulder and there are several places where the shoulder has a dramatic drop off from the road to the curb. I ride on the white line whenever it is well maintained enough or if there isnt a dropoff like what I just described.
I usually ride solo or with a friend, I am not a big fan of group rides, I dont know why I just am not. I use hand signals and all that stuff, but I listen to the ipod on my rides, on low volume so low that Id be able to hear a person talking to me or a police car or ambulance coming from behind me.