Risk assessment of assertive cycling

I'll wholeheartly agree with that sentiment, you remind me of another point about having mirror on the bicycle - you might end up not looking back as regularly as you should after aquiring a mirror, and looking back is a very powerful tools to communicate with other road user.

fair enough, the recumbent doesn't give you the ablitiy to look back comfortably.

Well, that's true enough, you lose the ability to get eyes-eyes contact. I do a fair amount more signalling to compensate though, and that seems to work reasonably well. The other big advantage is riding a weird bike causes most drivers to behave better than they would with an upright rider anyway, even one of the very few that look back properly as taught.