[medium_burrito]

There are a number of problems for biking in the US, but first among them is we don't have separate bike paths. All the other problems like showers at work, rampant bike theft even from secure storage behind multiple keyed doors at fancy tech companies, excessive spandex are secondary.

Cycling as an activity has gone way upmarket in the last 30 years, as there aren't many new people in the sport and the main demographic is wealth older guys who spend obscene money on bikes.

The classic case is "Fat bikes", which were the unexpected success story a few years ago, and took over the industry by storm. All the sudden a ton of guys are getting another $4k bike, and people like me who always bought used aluminum or steel frames for racing (won't explode like carbon- have seen this happen multiple times, won't cost much to replace). The number of wealthy men in their 50s I know with $20+k of bikes is amazing. Sure, it's better than buying a fancy car, but it's a change from when I was a kid and most guys just had their commuter bike and road bike.

[zachrose]

Yes, very much so, but the problems are self-fulfilling: no infrastructure because not enough riders, not enough riders because bikes are unstylish and expensive, etc. But this also means that improving anything is a step towards improving everything.

[medium_burrito]

There were tons of younger riders both in the 90s and 2000s- one wave from mountain biking (when Americans were good at it, so there was enthusiasm) and fixies, which were cheap and cool and durable.

Fixies especially seemed like they would usher in more urban cycling (especially with people switching to singlespeed, but keeping the cool look), and messenger culture was a thing. There was no specialized equipment, except for perhaps tight jeans and moustache (optional for women).

However, no matter go interested people are, eventually reality hits you like a truck, or car door as the case may be, and your third bike gets stolen, and you get sick of it.

People would definitely use the infrastructure- there's no shortage of people who like to rides bikes, but are sick of dealing with crazy drivers and potholes and car doors and fedex/prime trucks parked wherever in the middle of the road.

[Aerroon]

Bikes seem great, but they're limited. Bad weather and winter limit bikes a lot. Add on to that the worry about the bike being stolen and I find it hard to justify paying much for a bike.