Originally Posted by resipsa

It's not unreasonable to expect cyclists to put their feet down at a stop. It's the law (most everywhere), and following the law is per se reasonable, i.e. there's a reason to stop: the law.

I agree with the OP, though: cyclists should indeed be allowed to treat stops as yields. Until that law passes, though, we're either going to have to stop or we can treat them as yields and put up with the potential legal, medical, and financial consequences. I know that I waiver between the two, depending largely on the amount of vehicular traffic.