Originally Posted by
hagen2456
Eh? I don't get why you ask that question.
If one has to get from A to B outside the larger Danish cities, that's what one is left with in very many places. I also think that is one of the major reasons that our fatality rate is slightly higher than the Dutch, and it certainly contributes to the low rate of cycling outside the cities (not least among school children). Of course, if one is out for a round on the racer, that's the roads one will use, too. Luckily, on most of the larger roads with fast traffic, the shoulders are of a nice width.
It's possible that the
larger distances are enough to explain
this.
Anyway...
In the US (at least), the amount of bike lanes (which, I guess, you think would eliminate the need to make "vehicular" left turns) is very small. If people want to ride bicycles in the US, they have to deal with what
exists. They can't wait until enough bike lanes are present to start riding.
While it's likely that more bicycle paths will be built in the US,
there will always be many, many places where bicycle paths will never exist. That means that many riders (in the US) are going to have to be able to ride in the roadway.
And, rather obviously, we have
no idea why the unfortunate people you observed (or the person Bek mentioned) got killed.
We
can guess that they would not have been riding bicycles where they were if bicycle riding
required bike lanes.
It's also puzzling that bicycle riding is
safe (no helmets required!) and
unsafe.