Actually, the best defense is always to ride SLIGHTLY faster than the rest of the traffic in order to stay out of the cager's blind stop as much as possible...and so I guess that would that "lightly aggressive" thing Scott mentioned above.
And, loud pipes do NOT tend to keep people from pulling out of a side street OR making that left turn right in front of you as they're coming the opposite way because of the direction your bike's exhaust note is being emitted, and REGARDLESS of how loud they are, they do NOT register with that nearsighted doofus who's about to pull that boneheaded manuever right in front of you.
SafER riding is ALWAYS a matter of recognizing your current surroundings(i.e. a street with a number of driveways/parking lot entrances/etc flowing into it, the ebb and flow of traffic, the lighting or lack of, the time of day(i.e. dawn and/or dusk when more accidents happen), among many many MANY other factors that we ALL should endeavor to learn and remember as soon as we throw a leg over our rides and hit that ignition button.
