It's complicated, though. I think there's probably at least a bit of selection bias at work. There are plenty of cyclists who take traffic laws as seriously as

It's complicated, though. I think there's probably at least a bit of selection bias at work. There are plenty of cyclists who take traffic laws as seriously as drivers. But you're not going to notice them as much. And, here, in Portland, it's easy because most (not all) drivers are used to having cyclists in traffic with them and understand how to behave. I used to live in Seattle, though, which had a lot fewer cyclists, and drivers in general were not used to watching out for bikes, or understanding cyclists' behavior in traffic. So, there, I had a completely different mindset. I saw motor traffic and traffic laws, including lights, stop signs, etc. as obstacles through which to navigate. I had to always be vigilant about where cars were, where they were going, etc. I always had to take care to see if there was cross-traffic (including pedestrian) coming at intersections or not. I didn't really consider myself part of traffic so much, because most drivers didn't.* To be fair, part of it was that the elevation changes in Seattle are so drastic that keeping momentum through intersections was a lot more important. And it's true that this is the attitude that many cyclists have: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71JZgBLKMTs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71JZgBLKMTs * The somewhat paradoxical part about this is that I've actually had more traffic 'incidents' with cars here in Portland. This is because the abundant bike lanes and friendly drivers don't require my full vigilance all the time. Which is obviously not true, but it feels that way. I let my guard down in a way that I shouldn't, and obviously couldn't in Seattle, but it's easy to get lazy here.