my impressions of ridership and infrastructure inducements that facilitate and favor lawful road bicycling are not simplistic.

The current best roadway practices of on road bikeway design, the newly approved hybrid bikelane and sharrowed streetscapes are neither 'designed by novices' nor are they 'stunting the growth' of transportational cycling. indeed, the opposites are true.

the reasons for bicyclings' resurgence is a testimony to the versatility and wonder of the bicycle as a transportation device. american cities are changing, some more rapidly than others and in different ways. there are fundamental shifts in the american demographic and regional trends in the cityscapes ongoing that are influencing transportation mobility in dynamic ways - to the point bicycling can see a resurgence in a city like Detroit.

you may have seen the 2006 Harpers' Magazine article alluding Detroit as Arcadia, the city reverting to prairie and a shadow of its former self. personally, i haven't ridden in detroit in 35 years, no I take that back, about 20 years, but would be eager to return to see how it rides.

there are sea changes in transportation patterns in america, but the infrastructure changes seen in Chicago are going to influence cycling behaviors there and lawful road bicycling more in positive ways than less cars at Gratiot and 15 Mile in the motor city!

you are right, a little more subtelty and nuance of bikeway roadscape design should be applied as society moves forward.

Facilitiating greater bicycling in communities that already have extremely high US ridership needs to take much GREATER steps than the current acceptable public space considerations for bicycling if any continued large increase in bicycling as transportation can occur. those steps could be....perhaps preferred class street networks restricted to commercial and bike/ped traffic, TEMPO 30 zones, congestion pricing, on street covered bicycle parking conversions, etc etc etc ..

...... more robust infrastructure and inducements to increase bicycling on the american roadscape, robert. I like bicycle boulevards myself.

john foresters' doling out a patented "tough rocks, suck it up in traffic or stay off the roads" to american bicyclists and predicating unabashed support for automobile supremacy and motorists' level of service are the hallmarks of a bankrupt bicycling advocacy agenda.

american cities with bike master plans and active bikeways planning are NOT an exercise in 'stunted transportational' cycling.