Quote (dro94 @ Jun 2 2018 03:50pm)
Cycling in the UK is a death trap. When I went to the Netherlands it seemed like every road had a cycle path, was awesome.
Over here the move towards cycling infrastructure was partly due to angry mothers who started a campaign against how many children died in traffic, and partly due to the oil crisis. The oil crisis came with government-mandated car-free weekends (with few exceptions), which motivated people to pick up the bike again after the big surge towards vehicle transportation. This caused new infrastructure to be focused on serving cyclists. Over here if you are a motorist you have to take into account the cyclists, even though they might be inebriated, children or inattentive. Because if you have an accident with a cyclist, you are always at least 50% culpable. No matter the consequences/intent. This makes motorists way more careful. Another big point is that nearly all roads where motor traffic goes 50km/h+ have bike lanes separated from the motor traffic.
I once did a rough calculation on how many km I've done through my life on a bike and I'm at least at 25k, if not more.