My own admittedly biased and myopic viewpoint, based on two trips to Europe and business travel in 30 U.S. states and 3 Canadian provinces, is that the countries with the strictest driver's licensing laws and rules of the road (Germany, Austria, Scandinavia, Benelux, perhaps the U.K.) have the highest levels of bicycling, whereas those with more lenient licensing and arguably greater anarchy on the road (southern Europe, U.S.) have significantly lower levels of bicycling, perhaps partly because of intimidation.

European visitors to San Diego covet our greater access to roads and overall freedom of mobility, but also tend to get understandably nervous on some of our faster roads and tricky free merges and diverges.