I'm often a bit bothered by studies like this one.... I won't dispute that cyclists do often break traffic laws *but* I highly doubt that it is more often than auto drivers... though perhaps in different ways. So to set aside cyclists and point out how much they break the law without saying well, other road users break the law at such and such a rate too only serves to allow drivers to believe that we are all some kind of horrible punks that *deserve* all the grief they give us and the "lessons" they attempt to teach us......

I don't advocate breaking traffic laws - we all need to follow the same rules to be predictable and stay safe. The big difference is that motor vehicles are so much more dangerous. We generally only endanger ourselves if we do stupid things - when motorists do stupid things other people die. I don't think anyone should ever be allowed to forget that.