Originally Posted by
Ekdog
"The idea of 'vehicular cycling', where cyclists share the road with cars and act like cars, is looking sillier with every new study. A few weeks ago a study showed that a shocking 40% of cycling deaths happened when a cyclist was rear ended, usually on arterial roads. Now a new study, Lessons from the Green Lanes, provides clear evidence that separated bike lanes work really well, not only at saving lives, but in attracting more cyclists, making cyclists feel safer, and increasing economic activity".
If you build it, they will come: New study shows that bike lanes increase ridership : TreeHugger
That tree hugger article pointed out one essential tidbit: if you want to grow cycling traffic, you need to keep it away from cars.
Personally I can't imagine every bike trip being on separated infrastructure. Most likely it would serve to get cyclists through the worst traffic and act as a bridge to cycling on city streets (although most likely on safer routes).
I suspect the notion of separate infrastructure and VC may not represent polar opposities as we imagine.