OP has it right

I lived in a small town in the finger lakes area in central NY. I used to commute at 20-25mph going to work and around 15-20mph on the way back (it was a hilly town.

Now, I moved to a small city in Ontario (approx. half a million people) and my commute speed immediately dropped to 10-15mph. The city is almost completely flat, but there are tons of obstacles. I can't go fast on the bike paths because the pavement is awful. I can't go fast on the shared paths because there are pedestrians. I can't go fast on the roads because there are traffic lights and traffic jams.