In the bay area the bike lane becomes dashed at intersections meaning anyone can go anywhere. The disadvantage with going into the lane is that cars have much

In the bay area the bike lane becomes dashed at intersections meaning anyone can go anywhere. The disadvantage with going into the lane is that cars have much shorter stopping distances. I had an accident a few months ago where I had just managed to merge into the lane (had to be going at the speed of traffic to do this) when all the cars in front of me slammed on their brakes and skidded to a halt -- I hit the back of the car with my head and smashed my helmet (and got cuts in my head where the helmet cracked; but I'd have been severely worse off without it!). But right hooks are much more common than what happened to me. We just have a really bad road infrastructure in the US (even for driving -- I'm amazed every time I go back to the UK and can drive for miles through densely populated areas without stopping, all because of the roundabout -- the lockless n-way intersection).