Portland will likely be the first large American city to breach the %5 modal share and it will have gotten there by reaching beyond conserative traffic engineers with a 'cars first' mentality.
attempting to ensure %100 vehicularilty in bike accomodation is perhaps the wrong way to go about increasing bicyclist numbers and safety- European countries that adopt a 'facilties heavy' model have both more cyclists across age, sex & socioeconomic spectrums AS WELL AS lower accident rates for bicyclists than the USA-
why SHOULDN'T Portland look to increase safety and numbers of bicyclists thru a series of innovative engineering designs PROVEN TO WORK in other industralized western countries? is it because american bicyclists need to think of motorists first and foremost when seeking design of more bikeable communities?