No, but I lived in Lake of the Ozarks and Springfield for most of my life . Columbia is a great little town in central MO. There's a lot of college there, so you get a younger crowd and I would say that yes - in general Columbia is a bit more progressive than much of the rest of the state (definitely more than Springfield).

If you commute in Boston, you shouldn't have many issues in Columbia -- I commuted in Springfield, where almost no cycling community exists and many, many drivers have no clue how to react to cyclists on the roads.