Bicycling Behavior Explained

Felix Salmon has an interesting post up on why bicyclists fail to follow the rules of the road. By and large it makes a lot of sense except for this:

But in stark contrast to motorists, nearly all of whom follow nearly all the rules, most cyclists seem to treat the rules of the road as strictly optional.

It hasn't been my experience that the majority of cyclist, which is what I take "most" to mean, don't follow the rules. There is, to be sure, a significant minority who do. On the other hand, it has been my experience that a super majority of motorist treat certain important rules as if they are optional. Speed limits are nearly never follow whether in neighborhoods or on the highways. Stop signs are treated like yield signs and yield signs are ignored. Pedestrians' and cyclists' right of way are seen as annoyances to be gotten round.

Beyond everyday rule breaking, motorists become increasingly selfish when they drive and look on everyone else as a barrier to their forward motion and, consequently, they are becoming ever ruder.