I've seen videos of traffic in NYC. Pretty much, everybody is breaking every conceivable law -- drivers, cyclists, pedestrians -- constrained only by the laws o

I've seen videos of traffic in NYC. Pretty much, everybody is breaking every conceivable law -- drivers, cyclists, pedestrians -- constrained only by the laws of physics and human / machine performance. Naturally this is coming from a non resident, so I can't speak from experience whether there are local customs involved that keep people safe. It's not qualitatively different in my town, just less crowding so that people have less of a reason to break the rules. But still, for each modality, the rules broken are based solely on opportunity, convenience, and in some cases self preservation. For instance, cars can exceed the speed limit but bikes can't. Bikes can blow through stop signs because they can. Getting out of intersections quickly reduces the chances of getting hit. Pedestrians walk in the bike and traffic lanes when convenient to do so. Enforcement is triggered by enough people complaining, or a preponderance of accidents.