I can't get into clipless riding though. I tried toe clips and found it incredibly dangerous riding in the city (New York City). I don't feel safe unless I can bail off the bike in an instant. It also seems the clips discourage cyclists from stopping at red lights.
Maybe it's a good idea for more rural riding, but I pretty much never do that.
Clipless pedals (the terminology is a bit confusing; "clipless" are the pedals that can be "clipped into" using special cleats, as opposed to the toe-cage style "clips") do take a bit of getting used to, but they are no less safe once the transition has been made (should only take a week) and the benefits are enormous.
With toeclips there is something physical that is stopping your feet from moving and you have to get your foot completely clear of the strap before it is safe to put it down.
With clipless on the other hand, if you have your pedals set right (spring tension) it becomes an automatic reaction when you know you are about to stop or about to go down. You also get much more freedom of foot movement without destabilising the bike. I got into a few hairy situations riding some technical trails but ejecting feet from pedals was never an issue.
Nowadays I actually find it more hairy riding with flats since I have to worry about my feet falling off the pedals accidently if I hit something too hard.
with clipless:
1. kick your heel out so that your foot is more than 13.5 degrees with your toes pointed towards the bike.
2. there is no step 2.
Personally, I haven't had any problems with the SH-51 pedals, including city riding (in San Francisco). Part of it is psychological -- when riding slowly, particularly while splitting lanes, it's a little bit nerve racking to be clipped in at first -- but if you compare to toe clips, you'll probably find that you actually don't step off the pedals very frequently. The other aspect is that it's not completely natural to twist your ankle when falling (since normally you'd roll your ankle doing this!), but after a couple of falls or near-falls you'll get used to it and start to do it without thinking. Every once in a blue moon I'll have to stop extremely suddenly, or start to fall (e.g. misclip in while starting uphill), and I'll now turn my ankles without consciously thinking about it. With clipless you'll find that can actually unclip faster/more easily than toe clips since you can push forwards or sideways with your foot while falling, instead of being restricted to pulling back.