Driving in traffic:
- Whenever possible, map out your route and take places that are more conductive to safe biking (bike lanes, wide paved shoulders, 4 lanes are better than two (because traffic can get around you), lower posted speed limit is better.
- Reflective stuff on me, reflective stuff on bike, lights (two rear, one front - ALL VERY BRIGHT).
- Whenever possible, allow people behind you to pass.
- Claim the whole lane if you have reason to. Don't sit far to the right so that cars start squeezing by very closely, always look ahead and take the whole lane if the edge of the road is blocked/damaged (potholes can be a bitch if you're forced into them).
- Don't let the occasional dickhead put you off your game. You have to be thick skinned about stuff like honking, yelling, and the like. Remember that for every person who yells/honks at you, probably 100 have passed you by without being jerks. Stay calm, relaxed, and give the angriest a great big smile (this tends to either make them realize that they're being dicks, or send them off into apoplectic rage . . . either way I find it funny).
Bonus info - I think that to a car the rear of a bike looks very slim and some people have trouble judging how wide your bike actually is from that angle (leading to close buzz-bys). I noticed that when I'm carrying a wide box or something similar on the rear rack I get WAY more room from traffic. (It's probably partly a self-preservation / I don't want to scratch my car thing.)