Why don't we convert more roads into bicycle paths?

Why don't we convert more roads into bicycle paths?

One less car

Space gobbling private combustion machines pollute cities. Free public transport and driving restrictions for (inner) cities are a must to keep them habitable.

Association between Traffic-Related Air Pollution in Schools and Cognitive Development in Primary School Children

"Air pollution is a suspected developmental neurotoxicant. Many schools are located in close proximity to busy roads, and traffic air pollution peaks when children are at school. We aimed to assess whether exposure of children in primary school to traffic-related air pollutants is associated with impaired cognitive development. Children attending schools with higher traffic-related air pollution had a smaller improvement in cognitive development.

Human brain development is a complex and lengthy process... "

Association between Traffic-Related Air Pollution in Schools and Cognitive Development in Primary School Children: A Prospective Cohort Study, PLOS

Air pollution kills most

Although collisions with vehicles remain a serious danger to the lives and physical well-being of cyclists, the main danger is less visible. Air pollution is slowly killing far more cyclists than are being more rapidly killed by the vehicles we are forced to share the roads with. Diesel in particular is a major life-shortener. Where the hit-and-run driver may be found after claiming to go and get an ambulance and may have to pay for the action, the impersonal addition of poisonous particles to the commonly owned air we breathe cannot be attributed to any particular agent. This kind of mass poisoning seems to be permitted by law.

Image: Air hunger, public urban art, Frankfurt