Rules of the Road

I'm constantly changing how I feel about bicycles vs. cars and rules of the road. Bicycles are expected to follow the same basic set of rules that cars must follow. However, as we all know, most cars don't really follow these rules. There are some rules you can see cars breaking every time you head out on the road. Well, there are certain rules you will almost always see me breaking. Running red lights is one. By running red lights I don't mean blasting through intersections at full speed. I generally come to a full stop, meaning feet on the ground, at red lights. After that, if no one is coming, I'm going. Since I'm generally the only one commuting from my part of town, this isn't creating much of a nuisance. I've even done it directly in from of the police to see if they would care, they don't. At least not the ones that have seen me. I can also be seen alternating between being a road bicyclist and a sidewalk bicyclist. That's not really breaking any rules but it feels like cheating a bit. This is usually how I get to Lucy's in the am. I can go against traffic on 21st street on the sidewalk instead of going all the way around the block and having to deal with riding on 20th street and on university blvd. I also avoid a few additional intersections. It seems that if you live in a town like birmingham that just doesn't have that many bikes on the road, you cam leave a bit more of the rule obeying to common sense rather than just blindly following. I imagine in a city with thousands of bikers, or riding with a group, this wouldn't work well, but it works ok here.