Reddit mentions of Art of Cycling: Staying Safe On Urban Streets

in theory, you ride as if you were just another vehicle on the road, following the same rules of the road as any other vehicle.

in practice, it's a bit more nuanced than that. just choosing which part of the traffic lane to ride in is almost an art, and this art is a subclass of communications --- by picking where in the lane you ride, you're signalling something or other to the other road users, including cars. what's being signaled and how, is a complicated story.

i'd recommend reading Robert Hurst's The Art of Cycling --- not because it's perfect (it isn't) or because Hurst's always right (it's easy to disagree with a lot of his points), but because he gets that nuancedness, that sort of art, and tries to explain it fairly well. and he gets closer to right than to wrong most of the time, too.

EDIT: Hurst's book has apparently received a new edition since the one i got and liked. from reading the new edition's preface, i think it's worth updating the link.