I have no idea if there have been many bike lanes added in the past three years (no new ones in my neighborhood), but yup, there's more commuters & utility cyclists than ever.

I've often posted here that I can't walk the half-block to my grocery store without seeing at least one or two cyclists on the street. If car traffic is light, I might even see more cyclists than cars.

And, yeah, it really started when gas hit $4/gal like woodway mentioned.