I'm most familiar with inner suburbs/south city St. Louis. I think it's great for recreational riding. From my driveway I have numerous, mups, parkways, residential roads, and bike lanes to form many miles of loops. Several of my loops go around or through great urban parks. I find it less desirable for commuting and utility riding. It seems many business and retail destinations are along major thoroughfares and often difficult to get to through multiple lanes of bumper to bumper traffic. Our metro link (light rail) can be handy. Ironically, my commute is 22 miles one way, and I couldn't ask for a better route considering the general conditions until about mile 19. That's a white knuckle mile of no shoulder 45 mph speed limit and volume in both lanes going my way. The area is so land locked with industrial there's really no other alternative. Fortunately I can use the metro to bypass the messy section on the other end.

Regarding motorists, I've only had about 3 fairly bad incidents in 40 yrs. There's always a few "get off the road" screamers a year. No matter how many miles of clear lane there is on the left most motorists seem to only move over just enough to not clip you when passing.