FBinNY 

Most motorists are basically decent law abiding citizens, and willing to share the road. A reminder that it's the law serves to make those who may not be aware of the laws, more so. I ride in metro NY and have very, very few negative interactions with drivers, who seem to be very used to sharing crowded roads.

Sorry to confuse you, but when I speak of more cyclists not necessarily being a good thing, I do so because what may be good for society, or cities, or even America and the world, may not be great for me personally. I lived and rode in NYC for many years, and found sharing the road with motorists much easier than with cyclists. Plus more cyclists can lead to more driver backlash, and/or legal enforcement directed at cyclists. It can and has lead to cyclists being confined to the separate but not equal bike lanes the city has built. All in all, I get little benefit from more cyclists, but get many drawbacks.

There are also issues that haven't been thought through as we shift from small numbers of cyclists who can easily be accommodated because they're not a factor, to larger numbers that create greater side effects.

For example, I ride year round, but will jump on the bus in the winter if the weather is bad. I'm only one person and don't factor in mass transit loading. But what if 10% or more of mass transit riders were seasonal, riding bikes when it was nice, and shifting to mass transit when it rains. That's lot's of people, and can have a large impact on crowding. There's a cost to maintaining capacity that isn't used, and how will it be allocated, and what level of ridership should the MTA plan for?