Cabs have financial incentive to rush between stops. They get paid for mileage and for time they spent stopped while they have a passenger. Thus, they race when the can, the mileage is constant. Then, the more time they have to spend stopped at the light they raced up to, the bigger the fare. They wouldn't get that extra stoppage fare if they slowed down and timed the lights to roll through.

Yeah, well cabbies have a financial incentive to rob a bank too, but I don't see them doing that.

Yes but the consequences of robbing a bank are huge. The consequences of running you over, unfortunately, aren't as grave, at least not for the driver, with laws being the way they are.

You mean the legal consequences. In some sense, WTF does the average person care if a fat, overpaid, SUV-driving banker loses some money once in a while? Really, the true impact of a cyclist getting hit is much larger than a bank losing chump change in a robbery (most banks consider the occasional robbery a cost of doing business). The problem is that our society's values are so $%@^ed up that the laws don't reflect that.