I have moved to a smaller town,that is bike friendly.
I rode with my 7 year old to the centre of town yesterday. Drivers would have thought I was unreasonable doing this in most other cities. The attitude of drivers has a big influence on the walk ability of a city not just the layout. Also buses in may preivious city tend to disreguard cyclists and they often have to take evasive action. One I had a Bus ride so close to me that I felt I needed to stop, and got off the bike to pulled on to the pavement.I am a very experienced cyclist. I spoke to the driver about his lack of "duty of care" and one of the passengers called me an idiot. Presumably all cyclists in his view have their safety rightly disregarded if they ride a bike?
another bus driver beeped his horn at me for using the road where there is a cylce path. I was doing 25MPH,the department of transport (UK) recommend using the road above 18MPH. I spoke to the bus driver and suggested he concentrated on keeping his own passengers safe by keeping both hands on the wheel, and not using the horn unnessasserly.
we can all quote situations of urban bad driving ,poor road use eduaction, and poor awareness, but the interesting thing in my mind is that the raods were generally wider,less busy and faster than my current situation where few driver/cyclist problems occur.
ALot is the attitude of driver, padisetrans, and cyclists, not just town planners.