[roel_v]

You're right that bike lanes don't fix intersections, and much of the problem stems from the New World-style grid city layout. Roundabouts are much safer for cyclists, although not a panacea of course. It's also a chicken and egg problem: right now there are enough cyclists in 'cycle-unfriendly' cities so to say to be dangerous, but not enough to find safety in numbers. Inner cities in much of Europe are cycle-friendly because there are so many cyclists that they interact with other agents in the transport system as swarms more than as individuals. This makes the reactions from other agents very different.