I am in NE Ohio and I am the ONLY bicycle commuter in the area. No bike lanes and no shoulder until I cross into Pennsylvania where there is a decent shoulder.

The roads are horribly rough and full of potholes and the only other bicyclist I see are the occasional roadie or the old guy riding on the sidewalk or opposite traffic.

Reminds me of the local area meeting I went to one time discussing the changes to a traffic light at the intersection of a very nice bike path (ie expensive) and a major through road... The "council" that was being addressed looked decidedly car-centric... large body people; the women had "hairdos" and the men wore slacks way up to here. Their opinion of the bike path and the related projects was rather narrow... in spite of me and a few other commuting cyclists in the room.

We remained quiet as a professional planner pointed out that adding a bike phase to the lights would make for faster, more efficient crossings for all, vice allowing each cyclist to trigger a "walk" signal. In the end, Mrs Beehive Haircut gets up and states: "well, whatever is better for the kiddos..."

"The kiddos..." as if no one used the bike path but young children that needed her approval. That is likely "who the heck those people are."

We took bikes along on a family vacation to Minneapolis last year. I was very impressed and want to go back and ride there more - and St. Paul too.

0 Bike lanes in Ortonville, Mi
But there is a Huge shoulder to ride on on M-15 (Ortonville Road).

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.

I'm in Vancouver, BC, Canada. I'd say in the city proper (not including the suburbs of Burnaby, etc) we're about an 8. I mean, here's a map of all the cycling routes in Vancouver. Green is shared with cars (either with a paint stripe or "sharrow") and yellow+green is dedicated bike lanes. While neither of these are perfect (for instance, the dedicated lanes sometimes intersect with cars in dangerous ways, and we all know the dangers of painted bike lanes in the Door Prize Zone), I feel pretty safe riding in the city and find the routes pretty convenient.

Moving out of Vancouver proper I'd say is more like a 6. Some routes like the Central Valley Greenway and BC Parkway go into Burnaby and New Westminster (and beyond I believe), which makes commuting across municipalities more convenient. However, once you go into these suburbs - especially Burnaby, but New Westminster isn't bad - they often become more like glorified sidewalks which means you can't go more than 10km/h because people are walking on the same path.

But even compared to a "big city" like Toronto, Vancouver's decades ahead in terms of cycling infrastructure. It shocked me the last time I was in Toronto and seeing cyclists getting pushed so far to the side of the street by motorists that many had to push the curb with their right leg while balancing on their left pedal - like they were on a scooter. But this seemed commonplace (at least on Bloor St)!!

Interestingly, on Copenhagenize's annual lists of top bike-friendly cities, the only Canadian city that ever appears is Montreal. I've only visited a couple of times (without a bike), so I can't say if it's that much better. I do know they have a bike sharing program though.