One of the amazing things I noticed when visiting Europe was the smaller
scale. Cities and distances there are much, much smaller than in the US,
primarily due to history.

Good observation,commuting distances in Europa are much shorter than US and
thats probably also explains why US driving public prefers big cars with soft
comfortable suspensions whereas Europeans prefer smaller ones with firmer
suspensions.
In Europa car is a device to go from point A to point B,not very much so in US.