Cycling in Switzerland (not as a commuter, but as part of the yearly lycra invasion riding to the alpine roads), I was very impressed with the cleverness of the

Cycling in Switzerland (not as a commuter, but as part of the yearly lycra invasion riding to the alpine roads), I was very impressed with the cleverness of their mix of separate lanes, on-road lanes, mixed traffic and the occasional dedicated cyclepath. The Swiss cycle infrastructure is clearly driven by compromise in terms of money and space, but it always respects the cyclist and is very good at avoiding safety pitfalls like dedicated cycle infrastructure at roundabouts. In Germany, otoh, cycle infrastructure is everywhere (even in placed where law doesn't actually allow it) but suffers a lot from a tradition of building cycle infrastructure for the benefit of cars, dating back to you-know-whom. Instead of picking the type of infrastructure by how well it matches the specific needs of the place where it is built, this decision is mostly driven by one size fits all best practice ideas that change like fashion. The result is a dangerous, inconsistent mess that makes some cyclists envy American "cyclists share the road" signs. Unfortunately, Swiss cities don't have the modal split numbers required to be internationally recognized as a template to copy (even Basel! Maybe statistical methods are to blame?). I think a full copy of Swiss infrastructure would be much more useful than an incomplete imitation of the Netherlands or Copenhagen in places that lack the dedication necessary to do the latter.