His book is a mixed bag. His thoughts about how to ride are good, but his conclusion in favor of wide curbside lanes and against bike lanes did lots of damage, as many locales/planners used his book as justification for not putting in bike lanes. This thinking was difficult to unwind. Of course bike lane use shouldn't be mandatory, as they aren't in California at least. I don't know any cyclists here who aren't grateful for the great bike lanes we have, thanks mainly to good codified, standards for their implementation. [I think I read his book 20 years ago :-)]
The closest I've ever been to being killed on a bicycle was in a traffic configuration where the presence of a bike lane completely upset the rules of the road. It was in Gainesville, Florida which has bike lanes everywhere and where drivers are familiar with people using them.
While I appreciate that some people favor bike lanes, in my experience riding in the traffic lane as a vehicle is safer than accepting secondary status in a separate lane. And the technique is not dependent on infrastructure...and saying, "But California does it," won't help the cause in most places. [I bought the book about 20 years ago, recently returned to it now that I'm teaching my son to ride]
