From what I can tell, Ann Arbor's building bike lanes exactly the way that makes sense if your goal is to get the maximum infrastructure for your buck:
The key observation is: if you're already tearing up a street and digging a big trench to do utility work--say, to replace a water main--then reconfiguring the lanes at the same time is almost free. You were going to have to repaint anyway!
So, say you've got a fixed budget to build bike lanes next year. Then the smart thing to do is to look at the list of streets that are already scheduled for major work next year, and spend your bike lane money there.
Sometimes people will complain that "millions" were spent on some bike lane. That usually means that they're confusing the cost of the whole project with the cost of adding bike lanes to it. Yes, it's very expensive to tear up and replace a street. The cost of repainting--and maybe adding some kind of barriers if you're making a physically separated bike lane--is small in comparison.
Now, this approach will sometimes lead to a bike "network" that isn't really a very good network--they're not going to connect up the way you'd ideally like at first. Lanes are going to stop before they go where you want.
Its frustrating, but I take the long view. By getting the maximum lane-miles for our dollar, we're able to grow the network faster, and those awkward gaps will get filled eventually.
By the way, don't forget why we're doing this. One of the pillars of the A2Zero plan is a 50% reduction in vehicle-miles traveled by 2035. I dont think that's unusual--pretty much any serious climate plan depends in part on shifting some of our personal transportation to modes that emit fewer greenhouse gases. It's an ambitious goal. (But note also that a 50% reduction isn't *elimination*--we do understand that cars are still the right choice for some problems!)
At a time when progress on emissions is hard at the federal level, this is something substantial and easy that cities--where voters are generally more willing to do the work--have a lot of opportunities for substantial changes that aren't actually that hard.
Reference: this was prompted by $8.6M project aims to improve safety, calm traffic along major Ann Arbor corridor. Note: "The project also includes traffic signal updates at the Maple Road and Seventh Street intersections, replacing water mains from Newport Road to Chapin Street, making stormwater management improvements, resurfacing the street and more." That's quite an "also includes"!