This is actually the ONE traffic law that doesn't work out well for bikes. I both bike and drive a lot, and in certain situations when biking, I admit that I will treat a stop sign as a yield instead. In my residential neighborhood, there are some stops that I can see for blocks in any direction, and it's a four way stop. Any car visible at all will reach the stop before me. If there are no visible cars at all, then I slow down as much as possible, then speed back up. It is actually safer for me to keep moving a little bit than to stop completely. This is being reflected by some communities passing laws allowing cyclists to do just this: pretend a stop sign says yield.
Now, all of this goes out the window when there are other cars, it's not a four way stop in a residential area, it's dark, it's raining... In ALL of those situations, you need to stop. Along with every other traffic sign. You need to follow those.
As someone who uses roads, I generally reserve my vitriol for people who are not following the rules. I secretly hope that bikers who run red lights (or ride on the sidewalk, ride against traffic, insert illegal activity here...) get hit by cars. I also hope that drivers who pass unsafely (or run red lights, don't signal turns, stop to let someone else go when they have a clear right of way, insert bad driver activity here...) get run off the road by tractor trailers.
In my opinion, many people fall into the "bad" category in both parties, and deserve to be in serious accidents. But just because some people can't do it correctly doesn't mean no one should be allowed.
