One of the big differences between the USA and Europe is urban sprawl.

A city with a population of 100,000 in Europe might cover a couple of square miles. The same 100,000 population in the USA might cover a few hundred square miles. It makes a big difference for the bicycle commuters.

One can usually get across most small cities in a few miles, although they are sometimes laid out in long, narrow corridors. It is much more difficult to do so with big cities.

Someone mentioned going downtown. It all depends on the city. I much prefer going downtown in Portland on bicycle. Traffic and parking is just miserable in a car.

But, say going from Beaverton to Gresham regularly would be a long haul on the bikes. Fortunately the Portland light rail system is relatively bike friendly, although do they limit the times and directions one can take the bikes on the light rail?

Often one can choose a house near one's work, but sometimes that is not possible, or perhaps family members would have offices that would be separated by quite some distance.

Anyway, I occasionally do a "fun ride", but the majority of my mileage is going somewhere, errands, commuting, etc.