Well, I think you can thank the US Postal team and Lance for the increased awareness here in the USA, and yes, it's a marked improvement...........
When I lived in San Diego, I used to ride 100-200 miles a week, and enjoyed pretty much every moment. I also did the Tecate- Ensenada, Rosarita-Ensenada, TJ - Ensenada etc runs every year, they were tough, but fun.
Now that I live in KC, it's either too hot (and humid), too cold, raining, snowing, sleeting, thundering and lightning etc,etc, etc. So now I ride my tractor, and watch cycling...........