I’d like to add that creating bike paths makes cycling a very fast way to get places.
Where I live, the roads have to work their way out of town, through roundabouts, around fields and other stuff to get to work. So, a car commute takes me about 10 minutes to get to work.
The bike paths cut through nature preserves and have no traffic control devices. So, even though I drive my car 50-60mph for 10 min to get to work, I can get there on my bike in 25 min.
If I had to ride my bike along the side of the car roads, it would take 40+ minutes and be very dangerous. And I would never do it.
This part of germany has walking paths and bike paths everywhere. Networked between all the villages and nature areas. You can very easily get anywhere on foot or bike. One of the things I will miss most when I leave here.