in a zillion years of road biking, there are relatively few incidents of cyclists hitting pedestrians, and the large (but not large enough!) sums of money spent on the infrastructure were spent with rules in mind, just like the rules of the road. those rules include speed limits, power limits (in some cases none!) etc which acknowledge the range of speeds and reaction times of the elderly, kids, dogs, cyclists, etc. very few serious roadies ride on MUPs where there is an alternative, around here several of them are signed “faster cyclists use roadway bike lane” and there is a bike lane on the adjacent road.

we all pay lots of taxes for lots of things, that definitely doesn’t give anyone the right to ignore the rules. definitely gives you the right to lobby for different rules, which is happening and i think most municipalities are doing a decent job of it with a mix of speed limits and vehicle limits and other use limits.

as for motor vehicles … there’s a whole army of peace officers and regulations and courts that deal with the consequences of going faster than the speed limit. i really think we don’t want want (nor can we afford it) for bikes. as much as people complain about it, the current class system works OK IMO, leaving it up to cities and counties to determine which classes are allowed where and providing a pretty wide range of vehicle types. i might add a class “0,” which would be intended to be legal absolutely everywhere a bicycle is, with a 15mph cutoff and an absolute 250w max.