Primary position

People I massively respect, like Festus, Will, and Oliver all clearly are singing from the same hymn sheet, but somehow (and I have tried), I've failed to agree with it all. I want to understand it, but my experiences and my method of analysis leave me with a conclusion that appears to be opposite to everyone else.

Ashe, your post contains a number of the most frequent misunderstandings of cycle training. And yes, you should take a cycle training lesson. Merely thinking about it isn't going to help you understand it. It takes a good instructor to assess you and tailor the training specifically to you. We all do something right and something wrong, and even very experienced cyclists can learn a lot.

In essence, I find the Primary Position is not more safe, as I see it, but less. In most situations, and when one can be clearly seen, then yes, its superior. However, in some situations, I fear the worst, for example, when a car is speeding around a blind corner, or over a crest. Would a vehicle then have the time to react quickly enough to a cyclist in the middle of the road in front of them? I don't know. I'd rather not risk it, so I cycle always as far left as possible.

Firstly, and this is one of the things that gets misunderstood most of the time, no-one has ever said that you should always adopt the primary position, just that your own risk assessment may inform you that the pp is appropriate/desirable in a given situation. Perhaps you instinctively already take the pp when it's appropriate--however, you then contradict your assessment that there are situations in which the pp is 'safer' by claiming that you 'cycle always as far left as possible'.

There is also the psychology of it. Where do most drivers expect to find cyclists in the road? Isn't it on the left? Isn't this reinforced by cycle lanes being on the far left? Wouldn't this subliminally educate drivers that that is the place for cyclists?

Well, it already has. There's plenty of evidence that where cyclists are marginalised in the carriageway, there are more crashes. A lot of crashes happen because a driver has relied on lazy expectations. As you know, 'sorry, mate, I didn't see you' is the most frequently-heard claim when a driver crashes a car into a person on a bike. This is because when cyclists ride far to the left, in a 'I'm not really here' position, drivers will notice them less easily than if they are in the centre of the lane, where they are clearly visible.

I'm sure someone will show me how wrong I am, but without meaning to cause contention, I do remember that someone has perished, cycling here in London, and they were in the middle of the road at the time....in broad daylight. I think the I didn't see the cyclist defence has far too much success for me to take the view that cycling in the middle of the lane will always be okay. I am just doubtful is all.
Tragic crashes have occurred in all sorts of ways, but the most frequent crashes, and often fatal crashes, happen with left-turning vehicles, particularly lorries, at junctions. If you remember to apply primary position thinking to your behaviour in motor traffic queues, you remember to take the lane behind such vehicles and not to pass them, inserting yourself prominently into the traffic stream.

Please keep in mind that I am a regular commuter (500 miles per month), and used to be a cycle courier for several companies, so I am very comfortable cycling London's streets. What do I need to learn to overcome my negativity?
Simple, take a lesson, see if the trainer points out something that you didn't already know, and apply it. skydancer trained me ages ago, and while I already knew a fair amount of theory, and I'd cycled around London for ages, I still learned a lot. I should probably go for a refresher sometime soon.