I live in San Jose, and bike a lot, and all three of my kids bike to school, too (I accompany the 2nd grader). Everything you say is true and correct. But, Sa

I live in San Jose, and bike a lot, and all three of my kids bike to school, too (I accompany the 2nd grader). Everything you say is true and correct. But, San Jose is still far more bike friendly than the vast majority of American cities, both in terms of driver awareness and infrastructure. An increasing number of marked bike lanes on secondary streets every year, a formal program for road diets on dangerous (for everyone) primary surface streets, sharrows on lots of residential streets, and enough North-South MUTs to facilitate many commuters. I live in Willow Glen and used to commute to Google in Sunnyvale. About 2mi to get to the GRT, then connect to the Bay Trail in Alviso, and about a half mile of streets to get to the campus. It's not just SJ, but the existence of the Bay Trail, the GRT, the San Tomas Aquino Trail, the Stevens Creek Trail, and even the Los Gatos Creek Trail all make a big difference for cyclists around here.