City Life

Don't forget that a few decades ago they were the same as everyone else, if not below average in terms of having a city designed for humans. It goes to show how effective consistent public policy is for changes like this.

They had a serious cultural moment as the result of a few dead kids that made safe transportation design a higher priority to speed/"reducing congestion". Similar to how backup cams were mandated for new vehicles in the US as a result of a few VERY tragic incidents.

This took a LOT of people who would otherwise be considered part of the car and driver constituency and moved them to a new vision zero constituency.

Everything else, at least at the start, flows from there. Once you commit to making your roads safe above all else, it rapidly becomes clear that car-first transportation design will simply never get you there. You need to roll safer alternatives to driving. And the more you do, the more the benefits compound. Building car-first transportation, as it turns out, is absurdly expensive compared to serious commitment to multi-modal design (the classic comparison is Amsterdam/NYC/Houston -- as a percent of the municipal budget, Houston is about double NYC and NYC is about double Amsterdam in terms of what they have to spend maintaining their transportation networks. Roads for cars are the most expensive form of transportation in spite of most other transit projects being judged as "too expensive").

There's some other very specific factors (e.g., the Nazis throwing all their bikes into the river during the occupation, creating a bit of patriotic imagery around a bike), but in my opinion the focus on vision zero is the main thing.

Unfortunately, it was lightning in a bottle. It's very unlikely you'll be able to copy that kind of cultural movement anywhere else. So in the rest of the world, it'll be up to dedicated, persistent, serious advocacy. I suggest you read/join Strong Towns, look up to see if you have a local bike/walk organization that does events, check if your city has a vision zero program, and above all else investigate your municipal planning commission (MPC) to see if they have public meetings -- showing up to an MPC meeting gives you a VASTLY outsized voice compared to anyone who doesn't, especially if you follow a good policy advocacy playbook to make persuasive arguments.

Japan's urban design is pretty excellent as well, for different reasons