I wouldn’t say so. Existing infrastructure can be modified to create bike-friendly cities. But what happens most usually is city councils go for the cheapest option which is just painting a line a metre from the curb and calling it a bike lane. Not only is this the cheapest way, it’s the least effective and most unsafe way. So when it inevitably fails, the city can go “Oops, oh well, I guess that didn’t work” and never have to spend money on making better infrastructure again. The problem has never been the building or the ability to do so. It’s always been a political one.
![[meme] WOKE transit vs PATRIOT transit](https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/3d2c8d8a-260a-43ea-b2d0-82e5067700b3.webp){kind=link}
If you won’t build it, they won’t come.
If they don’t come, we won’t build it.
The usual catch 22.
I wouldn’t say so. Existing infrastructure can be modified to create bike-friendly cities. But what happens most usually is city councils go for the cheapest option which is just painting a line a metre from the curb and calling it a bike lane. Not only is this the cheapest way, it’s the least effective and most unsafe way. So when it inevitably fails, the city can go “Oops, oh well, I guess that didn’t work” and never have to spend money on making better infrastructure again. The problem has never been the building or the ability to do so. It’s always been a political one.