The bit you are missing is the space efficiency. Cars take up the most space by a large margin and getting people into more dense forms of transit (anything else) frees up space to be more efficiently used. Space is the most precious commodity in a city as many people are competing for every square meter.

This is also why suburbs and rural areas are a better fit for cars. Space is much more available and you can afford to be wasteful with it.

> The bike lane space has to come from somewhere

> though more people in bikes and out of cars free’s up so much infrastructure that it can make less space work even better for cars

Yes, you've reiterated my point...