Australia

You're definitely not entirely off the mark. It's difficult, and our councils especially are insanely corrupt and useless.

But it's definitely not true that you'd need to level the city to fix it. There's a lot that can be done comparatively easily.

I would start by laying down ground rules: apart from motorways, no road should have more than one lane in each direction (temporary lanes at intersections, such as turning lanes, excepted) unless that road first has unidirectional safe, separated bike paths on both sides, with priority at the vast majority of intersections. Existing roads that violate this should be fixed at the first possible opportunity, such as the next repavement or intersection upgrade. All new motorway at train extensions should include separated cycleways parallel to them, similar to the Kippa Ring line or the Deagon Deviation and Gateway North Bikeways.

We need to develop a set of design rules that seriously prioritise the comfort and safety of pedestrians and cyclists. And engineers need to be held to them, much like they are in the Netherlands. Deviations from the standards may be permitted, if backed up by evidence, but they open themselves to risks of professional liability if they do so.

Councils already have PCNPs. They need to be required to act on them with priority.