Do bicyclists really get in the way? part 1

This was written in response to Eric Peters' article

http://channels.netscape.com/ns/autos/package.jsp?name=autos/sharing_road1
a piece he wrote on bicycles sharing the road -- or, in his view, hogging it.

  There are some good points on which bicyclist behavior could be improved. Certainly there are bicyclists who ride incorrectly, and a couple of traffic tickets might go far toward improving that. In particular, only idiots bike at night without at least the legal minimum lights and reflectors.
  However, there's a general attitude in your article, that everybody should
get the heck out of my way. There's also, in my opinion, a general
misunderstanding of who is in whose way.
  Are good cyclists really in anybody's way, any more than they would be if
they were just one more solo driver in a Lincoln Navigator? That's doubtful.
I'm in a suburban household with 4 drivers and two cars, and personally
seldom drive. Instead, I bike over 4,000 miles a year (and take the train to
work).
  Back when I was in a car for those miles, I was one more solo driver
clogging up the road. I was the last car that made it through a traffic
light, so you had to wait.  I took up the last close parking spot, so you
had to park a block away.