I used to be a cyclist. And while I was a cyclist, I used to think the same. Then I found out how some states have laws that allow cyclists to treat stop lights and stop signs as stop signs and yields respectively, and how helps a little bit to separate car traffic from cycling traffic.
EDIT: but no, this thing about patience rings a bit false to me. Patient in the sense that I'm not in as much of a hurry to get where I'm going, yes. But stopping after having built up a nice head of speed, knowing that I'm going to have to expend more energy to get back up to speed...
I'm surprised those laws exist. Running through red lights and stop signs looks like an excellent way to get killed. I certainly didn't expect it the last time I was going to turn right on red, with my signal on, and a cyclist ran the light going past me.
Many's a time I sat waiting at an intersection with no cross traffic waiting for the light to change, those laws would just have enabled me to go on my way. The incident you describe has the cyclist in the wrong both legally (still need to actually stop at a light) and pragmatically -- when you're squishy and unarmored, being predictable is a very good thing.
EDIT: but no, this thing about patience rings a bit false to me. Patient in the sense that I'm not in as much of a hurry to get where I'm going, yes. But stopping after having built up a nice head of speed, knowing that I'm going to have to expend more energy to get back up to speed...