I live in a college town where you'd expect to find a lot of bike lanes.

And we do have them. For a few blocks at a stretch. Then they go away or merge with traffic only to pick up again a few blocks down the road.

Sometimes I need a car. I can't carry a week's worth of groceries on a bike. I can't ride to a D&D gathering when it's -35°F outside (Montana).

But situations like that notwithstanding, I could easily use a bike for 70+% of my travel needs. And yet I don't.

There is no infrastructure. And any voter initiatives to create the infrastructure will inevitably get killed by Conservatives upset that something will help a college student while not providing themselves with anything. Or purely out of spite.

I spent some time in Davis, CA and have never seen a more mature and robust system of bike paths and traffic control. Bicyclists are first class citizens and (where possible) have paths that are completely separate from motor vehicle traffic.

I would ride my bike everywhere if I could do it without the justifiable fear that I'll get run off the road for not going fast enough.

There needs to be a worldwide change on how we handle vehicles as transportation. Follow me on this.

Back in 1970s the 0-60mp(102kph) was over 10 seconds. And for those who rode in any car made before 1990s knew you were going highway speeds because the suspension was so bad back then.

Now today average car's acceleration is around 5 seconds, 6.0 in a truck (no source). The technology to separate the driver from the road is insane compared to the cars of the 90s.

Also, cell phones. Need I say more.

In today's world cars are far more dangerous than they were back then just by the fact how more nimble they are. The average driver just so complacent to what we have. And top it off that the average driver is showing more attention to their cell phone. We can't have this type of vehicle in the same environment where bicycles and pedestrians are. We're making slow changes to how buildings and downtown streets are designed but I feel it is not enough.

Steps off soap box

Sources for the US

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/27/us/pedestrian-deaths-2022.html#:~:text=The%20findings%20for%202022%2C%20and,according%20to%20the%20federal%20data.

https://www.ghsa.org/resources/Pedestrians23

In Halifax, if you get hit, even in a crosswalk you are most likely going to get fined. And that's if you were crossing with the lights.

The little bit of driving I did in the downtown core of Montreal I say they need to finish the rest of the car lanes first. I was confused by the half lanes and the sections where 2 cars share the same lane. The roads became much better once I drove out of the province into Ottawa.

I did feel safer though with the rental scooter in downtown Montreal than I ever would in Vancouver.