I agree with Joe on this issue. It is not about who owns the road. It should be about common courtesy. I don't know what your state laws are but ours read that if there is a bike lane then bike riders should ride in that lane and not on the main highway. We have bike lanes here on both sides of the main Boulevard. Maybe 1 out of 15 bike riders will use the bike lanes and the rest ride along side by side in the street. That is also against our laws as it states if there is no bike lane, riders shall not ride side by side and block traffic. With our mountains and curves, I tend to stay as far to the side as I can when I ride and if a car or vehicle is behind me I will stop and get off the highway until they are safely by. When I am driving my car, I expect the same kind of courtesy. This extends to the idiots driving cars, trucks, and anything else that will do anything to block traffic. It irritates me to be on our 3 lane freeway stuck behind three vehicles driving side by side at 40 MPH too. I don't own any roads and neither do they.
Ron