I actually rode those roads. There are looooong straigt-a-ways that cars go 50+ in between the zillions of signals. Way too fast for the cars that are pulling into the roadway from parking lots or leaving the roadway to enter those never-ending stripmall parking lots. Add lots of the angriest and most impatient drivers in the country in the mix, and they are just bad roads, overall. That's just one of the faults, there are a whole bunch more that I wont bore with until later.
For me, to come from Vermont, which was the most cycle-friendly place I've ever lived, into the chaos/anarchy of S. Floridastan, was the biggest, worst culture shock I've suffered since going into high school in 1973