If the OP were to stick around, he probably would learn that this subject has been beaten to death in A&S, and no doubt will continue to be beaten to death in the future. Most of us are refining our answer out of a misplaced dedication to craft. There is a unstated challenge in every post like this: the OP says he is a new cyclist and insinuates that all the experienced cyclists flagrantly run stop signs contravening good social order and all that makes life bearable. On the contrary, I believe that the people running stop signs in an unsafe manner are probably also not very experienced. Furthermore, I think it takes about 5 years of riding to fully appreciate the stupidity, maliciousness, and criminal negligence with which some motorists operate their vehicles. These flaws of character or training make the generally harmless habit cyclists have of running stop signs look positively benign. Thus most cyclists don't really want to hear about stop signs -- first cast the beam out of your eye and all that.