I lived in London during a period when commuting by bicycle was becoming more popular and you can really notice that as drivers get more accustomed to cyclists it becomes safer to cycle (even when the actual infrastructure for it is a bit of a joke, such as all the “Boris cycling lanes” beyond zone 2 in London which were nothing more than tiny signs every 500m on the side of otherwise unchanged roads with a white on blue drawing of a bicyle) which in turn pools in more normal people to cycle (rather than the more hard-core, dressed like they’re in the Tour de France, crowd).
Granted, it’s a lot more effective with a real push for it as seems to have been done here, my point is that in my experience there is a networking effect of having more cyclists pulling in more people to cycle, bot directly (they see others do it and consider doing it themselves) and indirectly such as by cycling becoming more safe the more drivers get used to sharing the road with cyclists.
I lived in London during a period when commuting by bicycle was becoming more popular and you can really notice that as drivers get more accustomed to cyclists it becomes safer to cycle (even when the actual infrastructure for it is a bit of a joke, such as all the “Boris cycling lanes” beyond zone 2 in London which were nothing more than tiny signs every 500m on the side of otherwise unchanged roads with a white on blue drawing of a bicyle) which in turn pools in more normal people to cycle (rather than the more hard-core, dressed like they’re in the Tour de France, crowd).
Granted, it’s a lot more effective with a real push for it as seems to have been done here, my point is that in my experience there is a networking effect of having more cyclists pulling in more people to cycle, bot directly (they see others do it and consider doing it themselves) and indirectly such as by cycling becoming more safe the more drivers get used to sharing the road with cyclists.