Oof! The point of traffic regulations is to make it clear who has the right of way in any situation, so that everyone knows how to proceed. Politeness (and caution) are oil for edge conditions, where it might be in doubt.
Drivers giving up their right of way can be dangerous, because if anyone else doesn’t realize what’s going on, they could make wrong assumptions.
It’s easy to be mindful and polite to cyclists, but that’s not it.
I know one red light I used to go through every time- but only in one direction. The intersection was T- shaped, and when going right to left along the top of the T it is impossible to impede traffic or put yourself in danger, thus stopping made no sense (except when pedestrians are present). But that’s an outlier. I certainly always stopped at stop signs when there’s anyone else there, and all other reds. The only time I witnessed a bike get hit, he decided to ignore not just the 4 way stop, but the three of us other cyclists already stopped. The car that hit him was why we were stopped. Lucky for him the car was barely started when he was hit.
I used to drive a tractor trailer. We definitely used momentum to get around any areas with hills. Stop sign at the bottom of the hill could be exciting or boring depending which way you were headed
This is honestly one of my favourite genre of YouTube videos.
This always annoys the hell out of me too. If you go, in the manner literally everyone in this intersection expects, it will go smoothly. If you break expected behaviour, everyone gets confused, frustrated, and more likely to get in a collision.
Two of the reasons I really appreciate my e-bike are being able to regain momentum after a stop, or maintain it up a hill. I’m nowhere near a good enough biker to safely ride a regular bike in traffic otherwise.
yeah, I don’t think playing guessing games with one-ton objects is a winning move. if I do see them waving, I stare at them and wave them through.
usually, if it’s a 4 way stop I slowly coast to make sure they unambiguously beat me to the intersection. they go, I get an Idaho stop, everyone wins. then if they still don’t take their turn, I make a show of slowly dismounting. then if they still don’t go, they get the stare-down and wave.
It’s safer for cyclists- but is it safer for pedestrians? I have doubts.
yeah, Idaho stop – the way I do it, anyway-- doesn’t mean that you get to take the right-of-way. it means that you can treat stop signs as yields if you can do it safely. so, pedestrians always have the right-of-way. but if I can just slow down, let them go, and then pass behind them before I come to a complete stop, everyone wins. so that’s what I do, car or ped. but if not, I dismount.
but if there’s nobody around, foot or car, and I can see that, I coast while I’m determining this, then gun it on through.
when I’m driving, I just come to a stop. I’m able to go so fast comparatively, and without any physical exertion, I don’t care about stopping. I don’t need to conserve momentum, the car just gives me momentum for free*. and I can’t see or hear anything compared with on a bike, so I want to stop anyway.
*cost of gasoline, it’s ecological impact, and political impact of the wars used to secure it notwithstanding. which is why I prefer to bike.
They put roundabouts down the “bicycle boulevard” by my house, but they’re so small that drivers don’t need to slow down or take them cautiously so they typically just blow through them still 
I used to have a bike commute that crossed through what must be the 2 smallest roundabouts in history. The center circle of them was less than 6 feet across. On a bike I absolutely did not need to go in a circle at all to go straight, a car would need to veer just sliiiiightly right and then left again to go straight.
That sounds like a Neighborhood Traffic Calming Circle, rather than a roundabout…
Like roundabouts, NTCCs also reduce crashes, but unlike roundabouts, they’re not intended to increase the efficiency of traffic flow. They’re actually intended to do kind of the opposite. Whereas roundabouts get installed in high traffic areas, NTCCs get installed in neighborhoods; places with less traffic and slower speeds. The “TC” in NTCC stands for “traffic calming” and that’s the objective; to decrease vehicle speeds in neighborhoods.
(The question asked there was can you turn left in front of the circle or not. The answer given there is longer than just the paragraph I quoted.)
Yeah this looks like what those are
Near me they’ve recently built a traffic circle, which seems normally sized (small but normal) although oddly it just has one entrance/exit. Presumably they plan to add another one to a road that doesn’t exist yet but that will later
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