We just don't have a lot of bicycle commuters in the US. Riding twice a day 5 days a week, I may see three other cyclists a week on the route I travel, and my city actually has a very strong bicycling community.

Actually, that's quite good. As it's a two-fold space problem. One, distances are short so everyone can cycle. Secondly, there's no space left. So, it's quite an old world problem (Roman settlements and such).

Here, it's quite similar to Singapore as described earlier. 280K residents + 25k students on an island of 10mi2 (or 30k people/mi2). Just a smaller island that Singapore.

I like it, but space it at a premium and the island only has so much space :)

The route that I take to work depends on the time that I decide to leave my house. The shortest route is slightly over 5 miles to and fro but 9 out of 10 times I ride 11-16 miles in and 10-15 miles home for some extra exercise and miles. I can bring my bike inside the building and set it in a conference/break room with no worries. We also have a few shower stalls and dressing room so I am quite fortunate.

My setup is pretty good. I work at schools, so park the bike outside my room and shower/change in the ablution block. School A is 8Km from home, then 11Km (mostly downhill) to school B. 2 days a week is only school B, 13Km with a fairly stiff climb in the middle. Always come home from school B, and take the long way round to avoid the big climbs (19Km) South African drivers are not the most cyclist friendly lot and the trip home is always during rush hour, so I try to find quieter roads and ride on the sidewalk as much as possible.