Agreed, I have had a number of near misses recently due to not hearing bicycles coming up behind me. While I am not anti bike, I often have to bite back the desire to shout “get on the f***ing road”. Unfortunately I don’t live near enough to work to cycle in (I use the bus instead) but if I did I would and I would use the road.
As a cyclist, you can’t win in this respect: on more than one occasion when riding on the road I’ve had motorists yelling “Get on the f***ing cycle path” as they zoom past inches from my elbow. Usually out in the middle of nowhere where there is no cycle path for miles around, even if I wanted to use one!
This is one of my main gripes with cycle paths. On the road, you are part of the traffic flow and (at least in theory) you have priority over traffic joining from side roads. Cycle paths, on the other hand, usually have to yield priority at every side turning, dropped kerb and vehicle access point - and drivers don’t tend to expect a bike to be coming, so they’ll often pull out without looking until they reach the “proper” road.
An example - I follow this route (aerial photo) most mornings. The half of the pavement to the right of the white line is the “bike path” (you can just see the bicycle symbol) but notice how it passes in front of dozens of driveways, and (if you scroll in either direction) crosses side streets that require you to give way. It’s much quicker to use the road.