Americans tend to be more aggressive than most.
Your best bet for PvP fights/interaction is between the hours of 1800 Eastern Standard Time (EST) and 0000 EST.
Translate that to your local time zone.
In Spain here, and I do see quite a lot of people around, mostly UK, even though my home system is one of the farthest away from Sol. But its probably because I'm part of a pretty active but small faction on the rim.
I'm in NZ. Have ony been interdicted once by a pirate who demanded 20t which I happily dropped then on my way.
I see people during CGs and I often say hi...I never get a reply...ppl must be shy!
I have the same name in game and play in the early-late evening (my time), feel free to look me up or invite me to wing up.