Originally Posted by
degnaw
Denmark and the netherlands don't really "cope" with cyclists from what I've seen of them - they've just separated the two modes of transport.
Anyways, living in a very sparse suburb, I can see where mike is coming from - cars usually go 40-45mph on our local 2-lane rural road, and a bike going 10mph up a hill isn't really conducive to good conduct.
Separating different forms of traffic IS one of the effective means of coping with the diversity. If you didn't have pedestrians separated from the auto/truck/ horse carriage right of way, there would be a lot more pedestrian death on the roads. In some emerging countries this is still a problem.