admiral_biatch

> You'd think all of this would turn people away from the church, but it doesn't seem that way

It does. Poland is one of the most rapidly secularizing countries in the world according to Pew.[1]

Also mass attendance is at the lowest point since 1980 (36% of Catholics attend mass) [2]

[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/9l3q03/polands_yout...

[2] https://natemat.pl/226659,tak-zle-z-kosciolem-w-polsce-jeszc...

Where I live (Poland) it's not uncommon for a bike lane to be effectively a part of the sidewalk with trees and parked cars between the sidewalk and the road so it's not that obvious if you're visible to drivers or not.

I agree that putting unprotected humans on the road should happen only after other traffic calming measures have been put in place.

Regarding your last remark. There are basically two styles of bike infrastructure. You described the dutch way quite well. But there is also a Copenhagen style of bike infrastructure where it's directly by the road. Sometimes separated by the curb but still on the road. https://goo.gl/maps/QWTfALXSbsj

I won't judge which style is better. It probably depends on the city.

More about differences between Amsterdam and Copenhagen styles https://robertweetman.wordpress.com/2017/11/04/amsterdam-vs-...

I agree with you. I'm not in favor of separation precisely because it's unrealistic in the city.

True, but it's not feasible to separate the traffic completely. Every intersection would have to be collision-free for cars, bikes and pedestrians. How much money and space would that require?

In my opinion isolating separate transportation modes is only good if it is complete isolation but that's never feasible in a city. Too expensive and space-inefficient to make every intersection collision-free for cars, bikes and pedestrians.

If you separate cars, bikes and pedestrians most of the time but their paths cross at intersections then you have a problem because drivers might not expect a sudden bike lane out of nowhere. It's better to have the bike lane on the street so that cars see it all the time. This makes them drive slower and more carefully because they expect bikes to show up there.

I don't have data to back this up although I vaguely remember reading about it in "Streetfight" by Janette Sadik-Khan. If I recall correctly introduction of unseparated bike lanes in New York City didn't increase bike fatalities despite increasing the number of bikers and it also decreased number of pedestrian fatalities thanks to cars driving slower because of bikes. Of course the article shows that now the pedestrian deaths increased so it might have been a premature conclusion on Sadik-Khans part.