Good thread! I agree about the importance of bike lanes. Even as a seasoned bike commuter, I feel the difference between riding in an unmarked vs. marked lane, even if cars have plenty of room to pass within the unmarked lane. Some spending is required but cities can be creative by simply repurposing existing roads to have less motor-lanes and adding a bike lane. The difficulty in this method is that public opponents scream about driving infrastructure being reduced. This opposition is very detrimental because it forces progress to occur by building bike lanes and path in addition to existing motor-lanes, which is more costly and damaging to the environment.

As for cycling becoming something people just do without caring about 'cycling culture' at all, that is a challenge. This does occur but many of the people I see like this who bike for transportation are poor so there must be this notion among the public that unless you're doing it for exercise, you'd have to be poor to bike for transportation. Berlin is also a fairly cool city, naturally, and people in hotter cities tend to grow accustomed to air-conditioned vehicles and buildings. This may be changing with energy-consciousness and conservation growing but it is a hard sticking point for many.