I conducted a test. There's a short section of road here beside one of the canals. It's one way, with a narrow gardening strip including some grown trees on one side, and on the other parking. At it's end, where it rejoins other traffic, there is significant narrowing. On the other side of the canal is a short section for a quick return to the beginning, so that making twenty or for that matter fifty or hundred runs was no hassle.
The outcome of my test made quite clear that passing decisions were highly influenced by the perception of who the cost of a misjudgement would fall on.
When I rode over on the passenger side of cars, where other cars were parked, the drivers would pass me and push me into the parked cars, even when they could see at the narrowing that there wasn't space for both of us. On the wider part of the road, they would not move over to give me space. Cars would not slow to pass me.
When I rode over on the driver side of cars, fewer cars would pass me, and they would almost all slow because they would have to move over to the parked cars to give me a berth that wouldn't damage their paintwork, but at the same time they didn't want to move far enough to scrape their cars against the parked cars. This is quite contrary to the logic of the situation, because in fact, since I was on the driver side, and they could clearly see how much space there was between me and them, they gave me more space than they did when i was on the other side of their car, where they couldn't see, and where if they made an error I would be pushed into parked cars.
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On the narrowest of the country lanes where I ride, I take the lane, and then, when the car behind has sufficiently slowed, go to the "wrong", driver side, so the driver can clearly see how much space there is.
Andre Jute
A little, a very little thought will suffice -- Maynard Keynes
