I just spent a few weeks in Vienna, site of next year's VeloCity conference. 10 years ago, Vienna's cycling mode share wasn't much higher than Calgary's is now; it is now about 6% up from 2% in 2002. Back then, they had a similar approach to accommodating bikes as Calgary does now: paint a line on the sidewalk.  Relatively narrow roads and high parking demand made and make that the only viable option in many places.  Since then, they've upgraded those treatments by grade-separating the bike paths from the pedestrian part of the sidewalk and using colored asphalt and colored separation lines to clearly demarcate the area reserved for bikes. Their cycling coordinator told me they are trying to move away from that, though, towards proper separated on-road infrastructure.  More importantly, intersections get a lot of attention -- separate crossings for bikes, separate bike signals, cyclists have right of way in intersections. After a failed attempt at introducing a bike share system in the early 2001, they now have a hughely successful third-generation system with 1,200 bikes.

It's August and a slow news cycle, so even in Vienna you get inane debates about license plates for cyclists and funny scences where conservative inner-city councillors who ordinarily do not care at all about environmental protection threaten to chain themselves to trees slated to be moved to make way for new cycle tracks.

I took some pictures:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bikecalgary/sets/72157631068351966/