As a Cyclist who has raced nationals for both road and MTB, I understand the problems encounted by drivers on the road. as a cyclist, u can use motorways as long as u stay in the breakdown lane. if i were to ride on the road when there was a shoulder (i never ride on the footpath, this is dangerous and illegal) i would try to do the speed limit, i admit that i have used the right lane on the princes highway on a bike but in my defence, we were overtaking cars in the left lane and getting held up by those in the right lane (it was only a 60km/h zone and we were sprinting). my most major piece of advice is to stay off the footpath, between my sister and myself, we have ridden probably 100,000 hours on the road and maybe 2-300 on the footpath, we have had three crashes involving cars, 2 of these were on the footpath. other useful things to pay attention to are:
-Never run a red light if u can avoid it.
-If u ride in a bunch, stay together.
-Don't let cars come alongside you into roundabouts, it is dangerous.
-Ride a road bike and wear appropriate clothes (ie. jersy and nix), cars respect u more
-if u are taking up a lane, try to do the speed limit.
-stay behind cars at red light, once they are around you, they stay around you.
Edit: Part of the reason cyclists get a bad name on the road is a crash last year, a bunch that i frequently ride with road into the back of a car that was angry becouse we took up a lane, he race around in front of us and slammed on the breaks, the media jumped on the story and crucified the cyclists. Even after the driver was told by the supreme court to pay over $0.5 million for damaged bikes and equipment (please not, 70 bike were written off, some of which worth as much as 15 grand). The crash cost one member of our bunch a spot on the beijing olympic team