Best words of advice in this thread so far.

Don't worry about the cars, the wife came from China where she was used to properly divided bike paths away from the main roads, and going biking on downtown streets without bike lanes ended up making her do some stupid things (such as stopping in the middle of biking down the street and pulling her bike into the sidewalk cause of a panic attack) before she broke out of that habit of being afraid of the road and got used to the idea that cars will zoom past her left but wont actually hit her.

People on bikes do get hit by cars, but paying attention, keeping distance from parked cars, and not trying to squeeze between cars and the curb when at a red light goes a long way to keep you safe. Staying off the road after about 11pm to 4am tends to be a good idea too especially if you know there are a lot of bars in the area.

Jim