For the "murdering you" point - Lane Splitting is legal in California and every country in Europe except Germany. Its significantly more safe than you would imagine at low speeds. People don't try to murder you even in states where it's not legal.
And for the other thing...
The two things I hear the most
People can't change lanes into you if you don't ride parallel with other traffic. Don't ever position yourself in ways that this is impossible.
If traffic is so dense that you MUST - ride exclusively in a lane with a shoulder. If they start moving towards you, you can move towards the shoulder. But realistically, you can always just slow down slightly to not be exactly parallel with them.
As far as intersections, people pull in front of you because they judge distance by parallax. This means that one headlight on quick glance looks like a car so far away that its two headlights are appearing as one light. The solution is make sure you aren't speeding at intersections so quickly that no traffic is near you. If you are totally by yourself, simply slow down significantly when approaching intersections - especially at night.