I live in Amsterdam coming from Italy and have lived also in states. I have the opposite experience. Roads in the center are busy but everybody rides at slow speeds even cars and small motorcycles. They all share the canal roads with pedestrians and everyone is careful about each other.

This is also the main thing other countries don’t realize. Bikes here are slow. They’re not meant to be performant. They’re meant to bring you slowly (but steadily) from A to B.

Also I much prefer a busy road full of cyclist with little sidewalk, than a busy road full of cars with dedicate sidewalk. All the noise and smog makes the walking plain terrible and borderline unhealthy.