Agreed, being an auto oriented nation, used to sprawl and increasingly long drives to work, bikes are truly treated as a recreational item here. I live 29 miles from where I work!!! Much too far (we just moved at the end of last year, but was still 21 miles previously). Thankfully we have a decent commuter bus line that runs on the highway and they just built a new stop a mile from my house. there have also been talks about a light rail line out to about 17 miles - I would consider riding there and taking the train down, but that is years off. In Europe everything was built largely pre-car, so things are naturally closer and lend themselves to bike use. Until we start large scale infrastructure changes to make biking an option, it will remain well behind Europe (and most of the rest of the world for that matter). Doesn't me we can't get there, it will just take some time, and likely some external factors that necessitate a change.