What a jackass!

I feel like a complete moron. I've been doing some research on California bicycle law for my bike law rant. While reading California vehicle code section 21202, I realized that for the past few months I've been breaking the law.

Part 'b' of section 21202 says "Any person operating a bicycle upon a roadway of a highway, which highway carries traffic in one direction only and has two or more marked traffic lanes, may ride as near the left-hand curb or edge of that roadway as practicable." Which is weird what with the "may" instead of "shall" but its not what I was expecting.

I picked up the habit from a friend (who I assumed was following proper law) of riding in the left side of the right lane on one way streets with two lanes. This makes sense to me because that way the cyclist (me) is as visible as possible to cars and it still leaves the left lane completely open for motorists to pass if they need to. However it seems that the legally suggested place for me to ride would be the far left side. It would also be permissible for me to take the far right side according to part 'a' which reads "Any person operating a bicycle upon a roadway at a speed less than the normal speed of traffic moving in the same direction at that time shall ride as close as practicable to the right-hand curb or edge of the roadway" Notice that this one says "shall"

So when people have been honking at me to get out of their way and I've been ignoring them, I've been the jackass. Oh well, live and learn and know the rules before you get all indignant.