If they build it, we will come.

[shootingstar]

Bike lanes are very well used by a mass of cyclists in my town. Still, there are a lot of discussions going on because people don't want to sacrifice parking space or driving lanes for bike lanes.
I find it strange that there are streets with 4+ driving lanes, 2 tram lanes, 2 parking lanes and no bike lane and a sidewalk so narrow that you can hardly walk on it and have to jump onto the street if you want to pass other pedestrians - in the middle of a town.

It has been shown in some studies over the years, of road diets where choosing a street carefully with too many lanes which are only heavily used for a few hrs., each day and converting a lane or 2 to a bike lane along with other changes, calms down the traffic. This is very true in the city where I live, in its downtown core area. (too many 4 lane, one-way streets, it's an intimidating experience for cyclists...and pedestrians.)

Of course some drivers may not like it. But if there are alternate parallel streets, they will eventually go elsewhere for a different route.

I think some social marketing needs to happen after bike lanes of significant distance are installed, or where there has been alot of money spent (especially separated bike lanes). Especially in cities where cycling % tends to be low and not yet embedded in culture on a wide scale.

There is a certain % of non-cyclists or hesitant cyclists/wannabes need to be shown where the routes are /how much better the cycling experience can be.

The reality is that now marketing efforts really must be on multiple fronts, since less people are buying newspapers, etc. How does one reach all citizens in 1 big city? So a real concerted marketing strategy needs to occur on: tv, web, newspaper, twitter,...and to also counteract bad press. Even personal cycling blogs are helpful if there is local following.

What is annoying is that drivers/pestrians judge bike lane use based on narrow short-time personal experiences. They don't stand around for several hrs. to observe the volume of cyclists using such lanes over several months, over years.

Some cities do need to install counter equipment to measure and acquire objective quantifiable data.