One of the issues is that almost all road rules are very vague. Motor vehicles rarely come to a complete stop at a stop sign, but if they slow down enough to roll through the intersection safely, they are rarely cited. There are speed limit signs, but the numbers posted on the speed limit signs are not the actual maximum speed limit - if so, people would be getting tickets for going 27mph in a 25mph speed zone. Here in California there is a law on the books which makes it illegal to talk on a cell phone while driving - this law seems to be mostly ignored. Bottom line - a stop sign does not really mean stop, a 30mph speed limit sign does not mean that you cannot drive faster than 30mph - most of the laws pertaining to motor vehicles are largely ignored. Enter cyclists, who I believe follow the rules no more or less than the motorists, but because they are different - people notice more when a cyclist rolls through a stop sign or commits some other infraction.

I would like to see all of the road rules updated, and then ENFORCED. So long as nobody knows what the laws really are, we will never know if we are following the law.