[tablespoon]

> Bike paths make infinitely more sense (especially since they dont have to follow roads and can take more direct paths), but cities seem loathe to adopt them vs just painting some lines on a current street.

They're probably loathe to adopt them because often there are buildings in the way that would have to be demolished to make way. Painting lines on an existing street is infinitely cheaper, because no one has pay to demolish or build anything.

[ultrarunner]

Bicycles turn quickly. We're happy to route around buildings and terrain. No one's talking about demolishing buildings, and with the size of parking lots required by code for cars, there's often plenty of space to go around.

Paint is popular with cities because they literally do not have to care about people's motivations at all. Which they don't. Paint is an easy out.