[knaq]

That might be your problem.

Consider defining bicycles as pedestrians. Suddenly, we have bicycle paths everywhere, from which cars are prohibited. Bicycle usage becomes much more reasonable for the unathletic.

Where did we ever get the idea that we're not supposed to ride on the sidewalk? Kids do it all the time. Parents don't let kids ride in the street. Are kids getting arrested for that crime?

Compare mass. A typical bicycle weighs 18 pounds, adding just 10% to a human. The car is at least a factor of 10 more, and trucks are a factor of 400 more.

Compare speed. A typical human runs at 10 MPH. The average speed in bike lanes is 11 to 12 MPH. Hey, that's almost the same! Cars obviously go far faster, often 70 MPH but rarely below 25 MPH.

Compare energy. We can calculate it in junk units if we take any measure of speed, square it, and multiply by mass. That gives us a runner at 18400 units, a bicyclist at 26714 units, and a driver at 4900000 to 392000000 units. Even at the low end, with a small slow car, the driver has about 200 times the energy of the bicyclist. The bicyclist has only 50% more than the runner.

So, by the numbers, it is really clear that bicycles should be considered pedestrians. The kind of people who join bicycling organizations and lobby for bicycling laws might disagree, but they are a tiny sliver of the potential bicycle-using population.