(CNN) -- Professor Peter Furth has ridden his bicycle to work at Northeastern University each day for the past six years. The two-mile trip through the Boston suburb of Brookline, Massachusetts, is usually without incident.





Furth's journey is worlds apart from his former Boston commute, which for 13 years was a battle with drivers who wanted him on the sidewalk.





"I've had motorists that drive a couple of inches from my elbow, trying to scare me," he said.





Furth would catch up with drivers at stoplights and ask them whether they knew how close they'd come to hitting him. Invariably, they would say, "Yes, move over."





It's a cultural thing, he said.





In the town of Cambridge, motorists see bicyclists all over the place and are considerate. In Brookline, only every now and then does someone honk or yell.





In the southern part of Boston, it's not quite war, but the relationship isn't very friendly.





Although the street signs say "Share the road," there's still a long road to travel before that sign reflects the reality, bicyclists say.





Motorists often see bands of bikes on the streets on the final Fridays of each month as cyclists across the nation gather for evening group rides called Critical Mass.





The purpose, advocates say, is to make cars and trucks more aware of bicyclists.





But to some drivers, Critical Mass participants are nothing more than spandex-wearing, stop-sign-running Lance Armstrong wannabes who slow traffic.





'They think they own the road'





It's somewhat symbolic of the tension on the roads.





"The roads were made for cars," KTAR-FM radio guest host John Hook said in Phoenix, Arizona, last month. "And bicyclists share the road, but sometimes they think they own the road."





One caller to the program was a long-haul truck driver who accused many bicycle riders of failing to respect the law and not riding with the flow of traffic.





A caller who identified himself as Jeff said he witnessed an incident in which a pack of bicyclists almost hit a car that had the right of way. Then the riders screamed at the motorist.





"I actually think the bikes are more disrespectful to the cars than the cars are to the bike," Jeff said.





The number of cyclists is increasing.





Although bike sales took a dip during the recession of 2009, more than 18 million were sold each year for the seven previous years, according to the National Sporting Goods Association.





About 27 percent of adults in the United States bike at least once a summer, according a survey released in 2008 by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.





Most bicyclists ride for recreation or exercise, while a small percentage ride to work. In Portland, Oregon, which is ranked second on Bicycling magazine's list of Top 50 Bike Friendly Cities, more than 6 percent of residents commute by bike to work. That's up from 1 percent two decades ago.





See a map of the top 10 bike-friendly cities





Things are looking up, at least in the eyes of cyclists. Many cities are putting in bike lanes and paths.





Google adds bike routes to maps





More than $730 million in federal stimulus funds has been allocated for bike and pedestrian projects, according to AmericaBikes.org.





Washington is getting into the act. U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood drew cheers from the cycling world in March when he blogged that the administration was "integrating the needs of bicyclists in federally-funded road projects" and advising state departments of transportation to treat biking and walking "as equals with other transportation modes."





That drew an outcry from industry, which saw the new policy as taking money away from large transportation construction needs.





"Treating bicycles and other non-motorized transportation as equal to motorized transportation would cause an economic catastrophe," Carter Wood, a senior adviser at the National Association of Manufacturers, told The New York Times. "If put it into effect, the
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