Hi Theresa,

I agree that there is often a lot of competition for space, but I think that the foremost problem with that is the prevalence of car use and ownership. For the last half century, planners and populations have seen car use presented as such a normal thing that the debate is now on its head; we question whether there is space for (quite small) bicycles when millions of acres globally is given over to car parking, and the space to drive cars dominates our urban areas.

Visualisations like those in the link are a great way of reminding ourselves what an inefficient use of finite space cars induce.

http://wearetraffic.org/car-vs-bicycle-vs-bus