This is explained by the vehicle. It's trivial to stop and start in an automatic car as there's little difficulty involved and no actual driver energy expended.

This is explained by the vehicle. It's trivial to stop and start in an automatic car as there's little difficulty involved and no actual driver energy expended. Cyclists have to brake and then exert energy to get back up to speed. The equivalent for cars is speeding; how many cars do you see driving at the speed limit? The design of most cars makes it trivial to go over the speed limit; there's only a marginal difference in driver feeling between going 25 mph or 35mph. If you've ever driven with manual drivers you'll see that they tend to creep at stops or run reds more frequently than automatic drivers because of the added difficulty of shifting into gear from a stop. It's all just based on vehicle design incentives.