The typical American street has a sidewalk set back from the street and light traffic (so the controls at the intersections barely matter).
1. At least here in Munich, most of them here have enough space for one lane of parked cars, and one comfortable lane of traffic; if cars happen to approach each other on such a street, one has to pull out somewhere, or sometimes they can barely squeeze by each other. Contrast that with the US, where room enough for two lanes of parked cars and for two lanes of traffic (albeit without any markings) are the standard.
2. Setbacks here, both for businesses and homes, are much smaller than in the US.
3. There are many "cut-throughs" and little paths that are only permeable to pedestrians and cyclists, not cars.
The practical impact of the above is that streets here feel more human scale, cars travel more slowly, and walking and biking are more convenient. I let my six-year old son bike on the road on local streets here to get to the bakery or train station, something I'd never do in the bay area, where I'm originally from.
The streets in town here are ~20-25 feet wide and mostly don't have much traffic. 3 or 4 extra steps to cross an empty street isn't a big problem.
Germany isn't even top-tier for active transportation; that title goes to the Netherlands. And even in the Netherlands, more money goes to cars than biking or walking, usually.
You can tell yourself all you want that walking is treated okay in the states, but budgets tell the real story of where priorities lie.
Or look at where the stoplights are. In Germany, they're set back such that it's impossible for a driver to go into the crosswalk and still see the light. This naturally encourages drivers to respect the crosswalk. Not so in the US, unfortunately.
I could go on and on, but really almost all American streets are hostile to anything that's not a car.