I just saw this amazing video over at Copenhagenize about how cycle paths, i.e. separate bike only roads running parallel to automotive roads, got started in the Netherlands. Who knew Napoleon was the genesis of bike paths and that conflict between bicycles and horse carriage, not cars, caused the Dutch to adopt separate facilities. It just shows how an infrastructure can build the country with some of the highest bicycle use in the world. Cycling didn’t just happen, and when the post WW II auto boom occurred, it didn’t go away like in other countries.

Some people say separate facilities create an inferiority complex and suppresses bike use. Whether it’s avoiding horse manure or 2 ton death traps, I’d say the Dutch model has proved otherwise for over a century.