However, rather unfortunately, cyclists are seen as a bunch of weirdos at best, puppy eating nun murderers at worst, while motorists are seen as normal folk just going about their business and being unreasonably hassled by cyclists and penalised by the government.
Until such time as the prevailing societal view becomes more balanced then then slightest infringement of a cyclist will be viewed as many times of orders of magnitude worse than a motorist pulling a similar stunt. After all, if the prevailing view were more reasonably balanced then cycling pressure groups wouldn't need to resort to such silly stunt a in the first place.