I live in Upstate New York. I regularly visit family near Raleigh, NC. In a single day in NY, I see more recreational cyclists than I have in nine years of visiting NC. The are that I visit is growing at an unimaginable rate. Schools, houses, shopping, crazy. Their road conditions are as bad as NY. Their two lane secondary roads are marginally wider than our single lane roads and they have no shoulder. My impression is that the attitudes of drivers is less tolerant of cyclists than in NY. They drive very fast on narrow roads. The area I visit is similar to where I live in NY, suburban/rural. In NY, I go out my door and I could ride forever. THat doesn't seem possible here. Oh, lots of unrestrained dogs, too. Downtown Raleigh seems cycle friendly. They have a cool cycle themed brewpub, Crank Arm. It just seems that with the demographics of this area of NC, cycling would be more popular. Oh, and I rarely see recreational runners, too.