NYC has about 6,000 miles of surface streets inside the urban core. 6,000 miles! Gets you to every single address in the city. And if you ride a bicycle you are going to have to get used to the FACT that there will NEVER be a duplicate network of protected bikeways, in NYC or in any other city in North America, that will rival the surface street infrastructure created over centuries for the movement of all people, but became co-opted for the movement of motor-vehicles. Even the Netherlands relies mainly on strict speed and other vehicle regulations to keep cyclists safe on those roads that are not expressly for the use of unpowered vehicles.
Bikes and cars must learn to share the roads going forward. Pining for a 'separate but equal' road system for bicycles will relegate cycling to a pastime again. If there are many more cycling only roadways, drivers will incorrectly assume that bicycles can go everywhere they need to go without ever needing to travel on surface streets. Its a bad idea all this "protected bikeway" advocacy. We need to press for stiffer sanctions against aggressive behavior towards cyclists trying to share the road. AND cyclists need to actually share the road. 'Taking the lane", "Lane Control", these tactics are not "sharing the road". If you can ride comfortably for any distance at 20mph on a road with a 35mph speed limit while "taking the lane" you are part of the problem. If the door zone is dangerous, it is because you are moving too fast in it. People don't fling car doors open in your face everyday or even every month. People slow down so they wont sweat (what?) but they won't slow down to reduce the chances of a fatality in the low likelihood of a dooring?
I am really fed up with all the fear in here. You are just feeding one anothers insecurities. When I am out and about I don't see any evidence of generalized dooraphobia. In Portland the vast majority of cyclists ride in the door zone. Whether its a painted door zone deathtrap bikelane or simply a surface street without designation that is shared by bikes and cars. Hell even on legal sharrows, for the very large part, cyclists adopt a road position towards the right edge of the road. Cars can't pass on a sharrow but... conditioning... a heck of a thing. So, lets get real. Let's see some videos of the hard-core door zone haters doing their "five feet from the parked cars" thing. I will not believe it until I see it.