For me, road bicycling is just something I do for exercise while cross country mountain biking is where my heart is at. When I'm on the road I generally stick to the outskirts of town where these is less traffic. My safety concessions are a super bright LED tail light that works well even in the day and bright colored biking shirt. I bike with a cell phone also, just in case I have to call for help. The help I normally need is for my wife to come pick me up because I got a flat, my roadside repair didn't work and I'm out of CO2 cartridges.
This is north east Wisconsin, thankfully I don't have to deal with the traffic that some parts of the country have.