Yes. Even without an explicit law, that duty exists. To put it another way, to assume that drivers don’t have such a duty (even implicitly) is absurd.

And please update your post afterward. Well meaning people jump on something like this, yet such an obviously biased report only serves to increase conflicts on our roads. It may make headlines, but it doesn’t serve the very real needs of cyclists.

if you scroll down there is a correction added a couple of days ago… “Dr. Cavacuiti has asked us to make readers aware that the Toronto Collision study was actually designed to look at the cause of bicycle/motorist collisions but not culpability. It is actually several studies conducted by the Charles Komanoff and member of the Right of Way organization in New York that concluded that concluded that cyclists were strictly culpable for less than 10 per cent of bike-car accidents.”

One of the things I’ve noticed in looking at bike-car collision stats for our city (Phoenix, AZ) is that on crash reports police apparently code a large number of “Other” violations for bicyclists compared to motorists (the ratio is like 5 to one!). It is my suspicion that the police in many cases just feel that the bicyclist must have done something wrong.
http://azbikelaw.org/blog/understanding-collision-summaries/

…every driver of a vehicle shall exercise due care to avoid colliding with any bicyclist, pedestrian or domestic animal upon any roadway and shall give warning by sounding the horn when necessary…

I could believe that drives made mistakes in 90% of crashes where human error played a role, but that doesn’t mean cyclist error only accounts for 10%. There are many different ways that both road users can make mistakes that contribute to the crash.

I wonder if there is any formal training. I suspect that, since cycling is a normal/regular transportation activity (in the Netherlands, at least), new cyclists learn from other cyclists (maybe, even their parents) and also get more regular experience. That is, the culture might provide the education.

#15: “The rarity of cyclists in the USA is directly related to the lack of skill those on bikes now display, in my opinion.”

I think it’s more directly related (in the US): longer distances, cars are relatively cheaper, there’s much more accommodation for keeping/parking cars, and that, in the culture, cycling is a recreational activity. People (adults at least) have to be motivated to ride before they have any motivation to get skill/training.

The rarity of cyclists in the USA is directly related to the lack of skill those on bikes now display, in my opinion. If more people were properly trained in safe cycling practices, there would be more and the safety figures would improve.

Many people think I’m crazy to be riding in traffic, but I’ve taken two LAB courses in the last two years. Prior to that, I felt I was an experienced cyclist, but then I became a skilled and educated cyclist and my safety increased.

Few people in the USA would be willing to believe that they should take a class to become a safe cyclist.

I think that the problem in the US is that cyclists are relatively rare things for most drivers. It’s an experience issue.