Commuting trends: transit vs driving vs ...

[danbrotherston]

...
a) We have many overbuilt roads with plenty of space for infra through road diets, or in some cases just painting the damn lines, that we aren't even considering doing.
b) We should be tightening turns and narrowing lanes to make roads safer in general.
c) We should be fixing intersections and missing links in the existing network.
....

I said "reasonable and achievable" so unfortunately the latter part necessarily drags politics into the picture. If we can't get the politicians to adopt and/or support and/or at least accept the initiatives, they simply won't happen.

Of your three points, (a) seems to have the greatest potential to increase the number of bicycle commuters.  Safety is important, no doubt, but I suspect that making intersections safer would not have a big impact in encouraging people to cycle to work.  So does this initiative, of adding dedicated bike lanes (to how many streets?) have the ability to double the cycling proportion within 10 years?  (The previous 42% increase is over 20 years, or less than 2% per year.)

Things I can think of myself is are improved bicycle parking facilities downtown (our office building actually has a nice big secure room for bicycles, but many buildings do not) -- and improved bicycle sharing infrastructure for people who just want to ride and not deal with ownership.

Certainly politically things need to change.  I have little confidence these days in anything changing.  We continue to build piecemeal, bad infrastructure then use it's failures to justify not doing more.

As for a) yes, that's a big help, but I think you undervalue b) and c).   There are literally tens of thousands of trips which are a few hundred yards of missing bike infrastructure under the highway or other busy road away from being totally comfortable.

Further, I don't know if you bike or not, but the worst part of biking for me, is how I'm continually blamed for not following the laws, which are basically impossible to follow because the design has ignored cyclists.

The best example of this is MUTs, we have a lot of them in the region, and at every intersection, you bump over two curbs just to ride illegally through a crosswalk.  That really turns me off.

Certainly you bring up some very good points about trip end facilities, I have no problem finding secure bike parking at my work and previous workplaces, but even when I was going to school, I brought my bike into my office (against continual admin staff whining) because I didn't want to see it disappear.  There was no facility for end use.  Bike share would also certainly be easier (and apparently requires less political will).

When it comes right down too it though, I think end use facilities are a nice to have (I *can* lock my bike outside), but safe infra is a must, people won't cycle if they're made to feel unsafe.  But I might be wrong, certainly there are counter examples.