Brandonub

Cars, trucks, and motorcycles should be subjected to a higher standard than cyclists because their actions are far, far more likely to impact others. A mistake by a cyclist is generally likely to result in injury only to the cyclist. Compared to cars, there's a massive differential of risk and power involved here.

Personally, I think laws should be written to reflect the inherent differences in both power and mechanics; the Idaho stop law is a very good example of that. It's reasonable and practical to allow cyclists to treat stop signs as yield signs, while the same is not true for cars.

Yet it's not at all cut and dry that these sorts of measures are the best approach to handling traffic safety, even when only cars are involved. There's a reason that many new intersections are built with round abouts rather than traditional traffic control devices. Traffic control devices have the unfortunate effect of decreasing situational awareness, as people are lulled into a false sense of security. This prevents people from making context based judgement calls, as they're instead acting according to signals. Cyclists, by the nature of their mode of transportation, are more or less perpetually making judgement calls with concern for their well being in a fashion that drivers simply don't.