Unless you are coming from the Netherlands or Denmark, I don't think this is really the case.
The US has changed vastly on this front and I would rank it more cycling friendly than most places. Mind you many municipalities are still quite unfriendly to bicycles, but San Francisco and New York City (just to name two) have changed vastly.
San Francisco has taken street lights that were timed for cars (so a car would drive down the street and get all green lights if it were to drive straight) and changed them to 13 miles per hour, so that a bicycle will get all green lights.
It's certainly no Amsterdam, and there is still a long way to go, but I'd rather pedal there than most places.
(NL, DK, parts of BE and DE are still more bicycle friendly than anywhere else I've been on a scale that simply won't make sense to a person who hasn't been to those places. Caveat, I've never been to China, rumor has it that there a lot of bicycles there too.)
Well, I am coming from the netherlands ;) San Francisco and New York are definitely nice cycling cities from what I've heard (and also don't have many of the other issues I listed). However, I was under the (perhaps wrong) impression that in a substantial area of the US, drivers are either inattentive of or actively against cyclists? But probably only the bad news gets out.
You seem quite knowledgeable about these issues. If you have time, I'd love to get your perspective and advice about U.S. cities (though this might not be the appropriate place, I put my email in my profile in case you have time).
Then like I said, with that standard, everywhere else is bicycle unfriendly. :(
An email is coming, but I think that one of the big things (and San Francisco has this badly) is that the US is has been so car focused for so long that it is not exactly something that easily changes. But, compared to what it used to be, I think it has changed and still is changing.
I don't think it is unique to USA. When I was in London in the late 90s, I was told "You want to ride a bike? You'll get killed!" Now there are bike lanes and bike share programs and all sorts of things, and while there are still places to avoid and even back in the day there were bike-able places, it's gotten much better.
Unless you are coming from the Netherlands or Denmark, I don't think this is really the case.
The US has changed vastly on this front and I would rank it more cycling friendly than most places. Mind you many municipalities are still quite unfriendly to bicycles, but San Francisco and New York City (just to name two) have changed vastly.
San Francisco has taken street lights that were timed for cars (so a car would drive down the street and get all green lights if it were to drive straight) and changed them to 13 miles per hour, so that a bicycle will get all green lights.
It's certainly no Amsterdam, and there is still a long way to go, but I'd rather pedal there than most places.
(NL, DK, parts of BE and DE are still more bicycle friendly than anywhere else I've been on a scale that simply won't make sense to a person who hasn't been to those places. Caveat, I've never been to China, rumor has it that there a lot of bicycles there too.)