Nobody wants to put in protected bike lanes because everybody drives.
If you build it, they will come. The Netherlands used to be very car dependent until the government put in a massive effort to build out bike infrastructure, and now it’s the bike capital of the world. Here are a few things they changed to make it happen:
eliminate routes through cities to push cars to go around on the highways instead of driving through the city center
design traffic calming into roads - raised intersections, narrow roads, bollards to force cars to not travel in a straight line around residential areas, etc
improve arterial mass transit, and build bike and pedestrian infrastructure to get to them
Once the cars started moving outside the city center, cycling and transit became became much more practical, but it all started by making driving less convenient so other modes of transportation became more attractive.
If you build it, they will come. The Netherlands used to be very car dependent until the government put in a massive effort to build out bike infrastructure, and now it’s the bike capital of the world. Here are a few things they changed to make it happen:
Once the cars started moving outside the city center, cycling and transit became became much more practical, but it all started by making driving less convenient so other modes of transportation became more attractive.