Helsinki records zero traffic deaths for full year

Cyclists switch between pedestrian and car rules at will. I see them blow stop signs and lights constantly.

Stats doesn't agree with you. At least in the EU this is the matrix of vehicle types and deaths: https://road-safety.transport.ec.europa.eu/document/download...

In their defense, neither set of rules offers them much in the way of safety and protection.

I had similar experiences with cars.

I wouldn’t think of rare American cyclists being comparable to more common European cyclists. Especially if we are talking about a bike messenger in NYC vs a commuter in Amsterdam.

What I've noticed is that everybody skirts rules for convenience, but the offenses are different because the conditions are different.

Cars break the speed limit, look at their phones (easy to see from a cyclist's vantage point) and roll through stop signs, because those things are possible and convenient. Very few drivers are fully in control of their cars in fast, congested traffic, which is why "rear enders" seem to happen frequently.

Bikes roll through stop signs and invent their own shortcuts because those are convenient, but exceeding the speed limit is impossible for most of us.

I’d argue that neither set of rules is made for them, so it’s not surprising that they take the most convenient of the two. Plus, it’s not out of the question to have laws in which red lights act like stop signs and stop signs act like yield signs specifically for cyclists[1]. It’s also likely less dangerous if that’s the case[2].

[1]: https://www.bicyclecolorado.org/colorado-safety-stop-becomes...

[2]: https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2010/may/21/women-cyclists-mo...