You won't find a more pro Dutch-style infrastructure advocate than me but.........Beware of what you wish for, as you may get more than you bargained. It's a double-edged sword and I'll tell you why (once I get out of cliche mode)......
I have ridden extensively in the Netherlands and from '
experience' as a cyclist and a Brit I can assure you that our attempts at cycle infrastructure are at best pathetically mediocre - and at worst a farking contemptuous peace-meal offering that is infested with maggots....and I would hedge my bets that ours leans more towards the fly larvae-ridden offering than the mediocre one...
So going Dutch is the way forwards?
Well, yes.......and no.
Lets start with the 'yes' camp - Cycling in the Netherlands is something the majority of the population do on a regular basis, therefore most drivers see cyclists as 'normal', not some fringe element in society. Also, due to various well-documented events in the 1970's (oil shortages/economy/road safety (children being killed in road accidents) the
PEOPLE** of the Netherlands decided enough was enough and set about changing their communities to be more pro-bike. Fast forward 35-40 years and you can ride almost anywhere in the Netherlands on either clearly signed and maintained cycle paths, or on segregated roads (and here's the good bit) when you are on one of these roads car drivers actually SEE you and pass safely. Also, woe betide any driver who actually hits a cyclist, because they WILL have the full force of the law bearing down on them. So the yes camp looks quite rosy?
It is - but it's also a little bit too...how can I put this - it's a bit too 'Truman Show'.....too perfect, too artificial....
So now for the 'no' camp:
The thing that makes it too perfect is the one thing that I enjoy about UK cycling - the adventure of getting lost down miles of country lanes (single track
) and finding lovely village pubs, cafes, mill ponds and exploring the land.
The above picture is about a mile from my house as the crow flies.
Yes, you can do the same in the Netherlands, but you can never get lost. I found that at almost every juction in the route I took I was greeted as a minimum with a 'toadstool' - a small metal post with 4 faces, each marked up with place names and distances lined up to help errant cyclists orientate themselves.
And as if it weren't perfect enough, they even put signs up to warn you that you will soon be arriving at another sign:
At the other end of the scale there would be clear legible metal signage pointing (correctly) towards my required goal - with the (accurate) kilometre(age) counting down to the nearest 100m
or a generic national standard map of the area showing current position and all the local routes nearby.
Think of it a bit like a london undergound tube map for cyclists.
Eagle eyed readers will notice the points are numbered, so if you want to cycle in an area, you don't even need a map - you just note the point numbers along your route and ride to them - 1-4-7-13-15-17-20
Team that up with cycle lanes that on average look like this
this
Or this
And whilst you have cycling nirvana, you also take a bit of the 'adventure' out of cycling by making it too clinical?
Strangely though, there aren't too many helmet camera crusaders in the Netherlands......I wonder why?
Seriously, I do take the point of reducing a bit of adventure, but if you want that, why not just ignore the signs? Cycle paths are very interesting -on one hand I see the points of less pollution, less reliance on oil, reducing health costs -but the real problem is foisting it upon a generally very lazy and pro-car majority culture. I think I'd be very safe in saying if there was a referendum in the UK (or USA) there would not be a majority of people voting for more money for a Dutch cycle path-like infrastructure. And shouldn't we respect a majority? Having said that, I also appreciate that the best way forward is often times not accepted by the majority either (for example, it's not exactly a common thing to see a population vote for tax raises and cuts in services voluntarily!). But then we get into the issues of Big Brother government doing/knowing what's best for you...... 
