I very nearly had a bad crash on a stretch of bicycle/pedestrian only road.
Why? Ice. It put me of bicycling in the winter, permanently. You can separate the lanes all you want but king Winter does not care.
Ultimately while bycicling has it usages, with self-driving vehicles coming in the near future I don't see driving go down, I see biking go down. If I was a parent, I would much rather see my children well-protected behind steel, airbags, advanced AI and safety belts all engineered to keep them safe than to have to have the drive around on two thin wheels with nothing but a flimsy helmet to keep them safe.
One of my childhood friends had a fatal car crash on a road due to ice -- that metal cage is no guarantee of safety.
I rode my bike throughout winters in college and had a few minor crashes due to slippery roads. If I were to do the same now, I'd use studded bike tires for better grip in ice which were unheard of back then.
If the road isn't plowed and salted, as we do for car-oriented roads to make them usable through the winter and ought to do for all transportation-oriented bike infrastructure, one can purchase a set of studded tires very affordably:
https://www.bike24.com/p238233.html
Why? Ice. It put me of bicycling in the winter, permanently. You can separate the lanes all you want but king Winter does not care.
Ultimately while bycicling has it usages, with self-driving vehicles coming in the near future I don't see driving go down, I see biking go down. If I was a parent, I would much rather see my children well-protected behind steel, airbags, advanced AI and safety belts all engineered to keep them safe than to have to have the drive around on two thin wheels with nothing but a flimsy helmet to keep them safe.