I had the same reading as you. I think this paragraph makes it clearer: > All these conversations abroad made people reinterpret the street for what it truly i

I had the same reading as you. I think this paragraph makes it clearer: > All these conversations abroad made people reinterpret the street for what it truly is: the remaining space between houses, with all sorts of uses and purposes worthy of discussion. Public space does not necessarily exist to facilitate fast traffic. The author is basically saying that drivers get angry because bikes are slower than cars, and that separating bike and car infrastructure 90% of the time makes drivers see bikes as an intrusion in the shared 10% of the infrastructure, because they're used to their particular speed profile being catered to.