Originally Posted by elocs

Here is the dilemma: What about the bike riders who are not the road warriors and have the ability to ride in traffic as many of us do? The children, the casual bike riders, or those who just feel too vulnerable riding their bikes out there with the trucks and cars yet still want to get out there on their bikes as much as possible. They will demand that their riding needs be met and tax dollars spent for the kind of bike lanes they require that are different than ours. Which also leads to the question, what percentage of the bicycle riding population are we?
The ones who will bravely (or perhaps in some cases, foolishly) ride among the cars and trucks, take the lane, and for some, to aggressively assert our right to be there (often blissfully unaware of how close we've come to being hit). When communities are looking to improve bike lanes and encourage bike riding, which population are they likely to cater to?

After reading many posts in a lot of these forums I now realize that in my nearly 60 years of bike riding in the same city of 50,000 that the streets get swept so there's not garbage and debris in the gutters, and even the MUPs are kept clean and quickly cleared of snow in the winter. I've come to expect this and have not really appreciated enough what is done here. I've been through communities that have very low taxes and the place looks like it with weeds growing in public spaces with little concern for how things look other than people's private yards. I need to be grateful for what I have here and that attention and concern and public money is spent on giving cyclists better and safer places to ride their bikes as well as maintaining them.