Congratulations on moving up to a bike! I replaced my car with an electric cargo bike early in 2015 and retired that spring. The bike has mostly been a very positive experience, with few issues. Riding defensively is a top priority for me, including lights, rear-view mirror, and a bright orange helmet. I try to plan errands and appointments for the middle of the day when most people are at work and traffic is light. I also plan my routes carefully, sticking to the back roads as much as I can. Would it make sense to try to shift your work hours to help avoid traffic?
While putting up with people telling me I am going to get killed riding my bike is one of the issues to which I alluded above, an unpleasant statistic recently came my way on a consulting assignment for an insurance company that I feel compelled to share. “Approximately 400,000 people were killed or injured in texting-while-driving accidents” in 2016, meaning the roads are significantly more dangerous for everyone now. Everybody, please try to influence everyone you know to stop using their phones while driving.