Re: Bellevue.
I ride through Bellevue all the time. Drivers there aren't any better/worse than anywhere else in the region. As a matter of fact, compared with other cities I've lived in, I think the drivers in the Seattle area are much more aware of and respectful of bikes than elsewhere (ducks...).
Go spend a few years living in Dallas or Houston and let me know if you disagree...
One thing to understand about Bellevue is that downtown BV and much of the city were laid out in the 50's as a "modern" city intended to be traversed by automobile. It was a specific goal of the city fathers to make Bellevue an automobile-friendly city. In fact, I read once that the reason the "blocks" are so large in downtown Bellevue is that they believed that "old fashioned" city blocks, meant to be traveled on foot, should be replaced with bigger street grids meant to be traveled by car. So now BV is trying to make due with what was laid down in the 50's.
Big parts of Bellevue are pretty ghastly to ride through. Other parts aren't so bad.