> Local governments here try to encourage cycling by putting in as many dedicated bike lanes as they can, but they never seem to get much use
Might be a regional or urban/rural thing? In Ireland bike lanes in central and near-central Dublin are often very heavily used these days, especially since covid (to the point that I think they're going to have to rethink traffic control for some of them), but bike lanes in outer suburbs seem to be mostly empty.
It's definitely regional. London has an enormous amount of cyclists whenever I've visited (good rental schemes and useful for the many tourists they have).
In Leeds, not so much. Not many tourists, the bike lanes aren't universal enough to convince some people who don't want to ever be on the roads, and there's a very car-heavy culture, even in city centers.
It's only pretty recent (post-covid) that it's really taken off in Dublin; I think it was the installation of semi-segregated bike lanes (separated from the road by flexible bollards or similar) that made people comfortable enough with it for numbers to really increase.
Might be a regional or urban/rural thing? In Ireland bike lanes in central and near-central Dublin are often very heavily used these days, especially since covid (to the point that I think they're going to have to rethink traffic control for some of them), but bike lanes in outer suburbs seem to be mostly empty.