I think this is a good point. While you are “protected” behind those parking spaces and shrubbery, you are also less visible. But you are still very much a part of that road system when you come to the end of the block

Where I live there are water canals carrying runoff from the nearby foothills into the county water system. These canals do not follow the roads at all and criss cross through our entire city. Some smart person decided to add multi-use trails all along them, so we have a bike lane network that’s off the roads entirely. There are even a couple of elevated bridges built entirely to get the bike trails over major thoroughfares. That’s protected.