Where I live, the city has recently put money into developing designated bike lanes for those who choose to ride their bike for transportation.  These lanes are common on heavily trafficked roads throughout downtown.  This was a productive idea because more people may feel encouraged the ride their bike more often now that there is some sense of security on the road.  I know many people stray away from riding a bike around because they feel it is unsafe among many powerful and potentially dangerous automobiles.  Hopefully, more citizens choose bicycling as opposed to more environmentally harmful modes of transportation.

Really interesting post! Although I definitely find that bike lanes have been really encouraging (especially for casual riders like me), I'm also not sure it solves the problem of the actual number of bikes being used. The issue is that it may be relatively cheap for a municipal government to fund the painting of a few extra lines on the road; however, its a lot more difficult for them to provide major incentives for cleaner methods of transportation. For example, in Washington, the city government funds a program of city bicycles that can be rented out for a day or so. It is relatively cheap and convenient as it can be returned at a variety of stands across the city. In my opinion, the only real way to reduce carbon emissions from cars would be to incentivize both the public and the government by developing designated bike lanes and supplying extra bikes to be available for those who don't want the hassle of owning their own.