Doug wrote:

The most common type of crash in
this study involved a motorist entering an intersection and either
failing to stop properly or proceeding before it was safe to do so.

Gee no kidding! Cars pulling out in front of bikes, cars cutting across to
turn left, cars pulling out before the bike had passed. These are common
occurences. If the cyclist takes the centre of the lane it reduces the
chances of this happening by making the cyclist more visible and further
away from the traffic entering or leaving the junctions. It still happens
though.

The second most common crash type involved a motorist overtaking
unsafely.

The cyclist needs to take the centre of the lane if there is not enough
width to be passed safely. The car driver (in most cases) is unable to make
that decision and will usually try to pass no matter how narrow the gap is.
Riding wide will block the unsafe overtakes.

The third involved a motorist opening a door onto an
oncoming cyclist. The study concluded that cyclists are the cause of
less than 10 per cent of bike-car accidents in this study.

While technically the person opening the door is at fault, the cyclist can
avoid this type of accident completely by riding further out and avoiding
the "door zone" completely.