It should terrify you. It's terrifying. I know dozens of people who regularly commute by bike in the ostensibly bike-friendly city of Seattle. Nearly all of them have been hit by a car at some point.
Granted it's probably not as bad as many other American cities, but for all Seattle's often rather liberal laid-back nature, Seattleites also seem to lovvvve their cars, and the state of public infrastructure to reflect that.
I used to bike a lot in Seattle about 25 years ago, and well ... I always felt very alone, and often very nervous. I felt part of a fringe. My impression was that although there generally wasn't the sort of overt "kill bicyclists!" aggression you might find elsewhere, Seattle was still very much a car-focused city, and that few concessions were made to bicyclists, other than the random token gesture (bike racks on buses, etc). There seemed to be essentially zero real bike infrastructure.
Maybe things have changed in the last few decades, I dunno. I haven't noticed much obvious change when I've visited since, although the bike cops are great (they're the friendliest police I've ever encountered!).
Quite the opposite, in fact. In NYC, drivers are seldom cited at all even when a cyclist or pedestrian has been killed. Here's the link I have on hand, but there are more http://www.streetsblog.org/2012/08/03/nypd-7371-pedestrians-...
Your link does not say that drivers are ‘seldom cited’; it says that drivers are cited slightly over half the time. A priori, an even split in responsibility across all cases seems perfectly reasonable.
http://bicycleuniverse.info/transpo/almanac-safety.html
Some recent headlines about how NYPD handles car-and-bike collisions:
"Another Cyclist Killed at East Harlem Intersection, NYPD Again Blames Victim"
"Motorist Havoc: Two Dead, Five Hurt, Kids in Critical Condition, No Charges"
"Cleared in Traffic Court, Hit-and-Run Killer Still Employed at NYC DOT"
"Leroy Comrie Bill Would Force NYPD to Report to Council on Hit-and-Runs"
"Hynes: No Charges for Curb-Jumper Who Blew Red and Killed Pedestrian"
"NYPD: Pedestrian Killed Himself by Running Into Stopped Police Cruiser"
"Cyclist’s Brother Says NYPD Closed Investigation Into Unsolved Death"
"Immune From Prosecution, Curb-Jumping NYC Motorists Claim More Victims"
"Irvin Gitlitz, 83, Was First of Two Pedestrian Fatalities Wednesday" (which notes, "The truck involved in the crash that killed Irvin Gitlitz did not have required crossover mirrors. The driver was not summonsed," and for the second fatality, "No summonses were issued")
...and those headlines are just going back to April of this year. http://www.streetsblog.org/category/issues-campaigns/nypd-cr...
Also, IIRC when a car hits pedestrian or bike, the car is always the "guilty" party because pedestrians or bikes are never a safety threat to cars (you can still be acquitted if it is clear that there's no way you could have prevented the crash). Does the US have something like that to promote cautious driving habits?