not so much the # of cars on the road, more that I was more confident about my spatial coordinates on the driver's side than the passenger's side, so I could tell that a car wasn't gonna hit me on my side vs the far sideYou must live out in the boonies, that would be far less likely here.
I drove fairly beefy sedans too, my first two cars were buick centuries, tho I did a bit of learning in an altima