What might be happening is that an equivalent number of people using bike lanes and cars results in a much smaller impact and apparent usage on bike lanes.
This. I never saw more cyclists than when I was riding my bike to and from work. When you’re in a car you either don’t take note of them (not that you don’t notice them, but that they’re just an extra thing to not hit and then wiped from memory once passed) or you’re just not out long enough to see them.
The city I’m in has gone crazy putting in bike lanes. Never seen a bike on it.
What might be happening is that an equivalent number of people using bike lanes and cars results in a much smaller impact and apparent usage on bike lanes.
Start using them yourself and you would see a lot of other bikers too.
This. I never saw more cyclists than when I was riding my bike to and from work. When you’re in a car you either don’t take note of them (not that you don’t notice them, but that they’re just an extra thing to not hit and then wiped from memory once passed) or you’re just not out long enough to see them.
It’s necessary to do more than just put in bike lanes to make for a bike-friendly city.
Are they protected bike lanes, or a line on the normal street that cars swerve through to turn and park
Protected. But with plastic things that I could easily take out if I felt like it.
That wouldn’t feel safe to me, I’d probably illegally use the sidewalk just to not get grey hairs for riding a bicycle.
That said, it does take time. I’ve started seeing people use bike lanes here after over a year of them being marked and barricaded