Cyclists _are_ second class citizens on the roads.
In 2009, the latest year I can find data for, cars were responsible for 3,298 billion person miles, 88.4% of person miles travelled. Bikes were responsible for a little under 9 billion, or .2%.
I, for one, am shocked that a mode of transportation that is treated either as a toy or with contempt is rarely used. Who could have ever predicted such a thing?
Now look at a country where bikes are treated with roughly equal seriousness as cars, like the Netherlands, and tell me how many trips and how far bikes went.
In 2009, the latest year I can find data for, cars were responsible for 3,298 billion person miles, 88.4% of person miles travelled. Bikes were responsible for a little under 9 billion, or .2%.
http://www.rita.dot.gov/bts/publications/passenger_travel_20...