I think you're reading too much into the statement. "the more cycling is encouraged and taken up, the safer it becomes" doesn't read to me to be excluding infr

I think you're reading too much into the statement. "the more cycling is encouraged and taken up, the safer it becomes" doesn't read to me to be excluding infrastructure changes like you describe, and I think the author would agree that it can go the other way also (the safer it is due to infrastructure support, the more popular it becomes). I will agree that the paragraph is set up strangely. "Fewer people on cycles, however, doesn’t mean fewer accidents" is an odd statement when you are measuring accidents on a per mileage basis.