What the hell are you talking about? 25% of morning peak road traffic in central london is cyclists, so there are allot of people that disagree with you.

Nothing particularly dangerous about London, in fact i would say it feels safer than many cities because there are so many cyclists on the road you really feel that motorists will anticipate you such as being on the inside of them when they turn left. Watch out passing heavy trucks on the inside, same as anywhere else.

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/bike-blog/2013/jun/25/cyclists-quarter-london-vehicles

No it's when the US does something the third (and second) world pioneered. Third world didn't pioneer breathing. (though you could argue they pioneered human breathing if you believe we first evolved there. Of course back then it would have been the most highly developed and thus a first world continent).

This ride-sharing is very common in the former soviet bloc too, though it's of the rather more basic wave-your-arm up and down at all the passing cars type technology rather than using phones.