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The 50 Best Bike Cities of 2016

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M

mYm|17|

Member
http://www.bicycling.com/culture/news/the-50-best-bike-cities-of-2016

yayy PNW!

America’s 50 Best Bike Cities (Complete List)
1. Chicago, IL
2. San Francisco, CA
3. Portland, OR
4. New York, NY
5. Seattle, WA
6. Minneapolis, MN
7. Austin, TX
8. Cambridge, MA
9. Washington, D.C.
10. Boulder, CO
11. Denver, CO
12. Fort Collins, CO
13. Indianapolis, IN
14. Salt Lake City, UT
15. Philadelphia, PA
16. Madison, WI
17. Boston, MA
18. Eugene, OR
19. New Orleans, LA
20. Pittsburgh, PA
21. Oakland, CA
22. Tempe, AZ
23. Tucson, AZ
24. Los Angeles, CA
25. Arlington, VA
26. San Jose, CA
27. Boise, ID
28. Long Beach, CA
29. Gainesville, FL
30. Chattanooga, TN
31. Louisville, KY
32. Saint Paul, MN
33. Grant Rapids, MI
34. Alexandria, VA
35. Albuquerque, NM
36. Cincinnati, OH
37. Sacramento, CA
38. Tallahassee, FL
39. Columbus, OH
40. Miami, FL
41. Cleveland, OH
42. Columbia, MO
43. Atlanta, GA
44. Lincoln, NE
45. Tampa, FL
46. Milwaukee, WI
47. Salem, MA
48. Scottsdale, AZ
49. Thousand Oaks, CA
50. Detroit, MI
 
S

Starviper

Member
Minneapolis only up at #6? We have bike lanes and bike rental setups all over the city along with a bike highway, kinda surprised at this.
 
C

cyborg009

Banned
40. Miami, FL

should be lower the amount of people killed biking here is insane. Almost makes you not want to ride bike. I guess it got a bump because of the critical mass biking events.
 
S

Silkworm

Member
Ah, nice to see Gainesville, FL on there. When I went to UF back in the day, I really enjoyed biking around that area. Glad to see they still seem to be bike friendly though given the student population, I suppose that's not too surprising :)
 
A

AllIsOneIsNone

Banned
Atlanta at 43? I guess they were just running out of big cities to use, because while there is some awesome mountain biking just outside of the perimeter, for actual transportation bicycling is pretty terrible. I've seen more bike lanes/paths pop up over time but it's still dangerous as hell in most places.

There is the beltline though, which is pretty dope.
 
C

Chris R

Member
Bummed Anchorage didn't make the list. We are very bike friendly, even if most people only bike during the summer.

There are a few crazies who do it year round though.
 
S

StoOgE

First tragedy, then farce.
San Fran seems naturally like a kind of bad bike city.

Austin shouldn't be that high. There are parts that are fantastic, but protected bike lanes on major roads are next to non-existent. On Lamar, Burnet, Congress and First the "bike lane" is just the curb, and often merges with the right-hand lane of very busy fast streets filled with agro drivers.
 
T

tedrotheredro

Member
AllIsOneIsNone said:
Atlanta at 43? I guess they were just running out of big cities to use, because while there is some awesome mountain biking just outside of the perimeter, for actual transportation bicycling is pretty terrible. I've seen more bike lanes/paths pop up over time but it's still dangerous as hell in most places.
Click to expand...

Same with Chattanooga. People are thoroughly anti-bike there. They look at you like you're a teenager if you mention a bike.
 
M

marrec

Banned
Pittsburgh has come a long way in just a few years toward being extremely bike friendly. They just opened a new bike lane in South Park that necessitated the removal of two lanes of traffic...

Which was totally worth it because it helped separate the bikes from the cars from the pedestrians.
 
P

Pinkuss

Member
taybul said:
*US.

I've definitely ridden in a number of European cities that were better than NY (#4).
Click to expand...

Definitely; Amsterdam especially in which cyclists have right of way over everyone (not good for those intoxicated by some of the places things) along with being completely flat.
 
Amory

Amory

Member
pretty surprising to see NYC up that high. where are you supposed to ride? there's a million cars on the road and a million people on the sidewalk
 
C

Cowie

Member
With everyone saying "My city shouldn't be that high" I'm kind of under the impression that maybe all US cities are kind of bad bike cities.
 
C

Chris R

Member
I will say Chicago's bike share system is miles better than the one in Seattle.

Better bikes, better distribution of stations, no helmet "required" ect.

Not that the Seattle one was terrible, but no way in hell was I biking back up some of those hills with the 30 pound bike with 3 gears. If they got some better bikes and put a few more stations around, like by the stadium, it would be nice.
 
S

Servbot24

Banned
7. Austin, TX

Not bad!

Seems like biking would be tough in snowy areas like Chicago and Minny. Even biking in TX is pretty shitty in the winter.
 
L

Laekon

Member
Their rankings are crap. I've worked in cycling for 20 years and lived in or visited most of those cities for work. Take #49 for instance where I lived recently. It's a white upper class town with huge open roads, not a city. It makes the list because of the # of miles of bike lanes. The problem is it has bike lanes all over on roads that don't need them and few on the roads that do need them. There are a lot of recreational cyclist but few commuters as non of the bike lanes help you take a left in morning traffic on roads with a 45 mph speed limit. At the same time Boston used to be voted one of the worst cities even though there were a large number of bike commuters. Bikes have always been a great way of getting around Boston. Saying some bike lanes make all the difference is bullshit.

No city in the US will ever match northern Europe. Car companies totally screwed over US cities in so many ways.
 
T

taybul

Member
Amory said:
pretty surprising to see NYC up that high. where are you supposed to ride? there's a million cars on the road and a million people on the sidewalk
Click to expand...

Roads mainly. There are bike lanes which of course are hardly respected. Riders here can thread between cars pretty well. Aside from getting hit by a car you also have to fear a car doors suddenly opening.
 
T

theepicoftyler

Member
I feel like everyone I know who cycles in Chicago has either been hit by a car or had a very close call or 5.

Also, Chicago is one giant pothole. I'm surprised by this honestly.

EDIT: I didn't think about the Divvy stations. I guess you see tons of those downtown.
 
Z

ZOONAMI

Junior Member
What? This is all wrong. Should always be Portland and Minneapolis switching 1 and 2. Both Chicago and NYC are trash to bike in in comparison.
 
entremet

entremet

Member
Amory said:
pretty surprising to see NYC up that high. where are you supposed to ride? there's a million cars on the road and a million people on the sidewalk
Click to expand...

There are many bike lanes in Manhattan proper, plus there are areas that are bike only such the the West Side bike path by Hudson River--no cars there at all.

And biking in the NYC is not really dangerous. That's a huge misconception.

Remember, it's bumper to bumper, stop and go traffic. It's speed that kills. NYC is not a car friendly place.

Those dudes that bike on highways are crazier than people riding in NYC streets. You're much smaller and zigzag through stopped cars easily. Biking on sidewalks is illegal and very dangerous with all the pedestrian traffic.

Biking in NYC is easy, safe and pretty nice if you know the bike only areas--by the water and parks.
 
C

CDV13

Member
I'm really surprised Columbus is so low on the list. Many trails and bike lanes throughout the city. Also, a large amount of bikers due to OSU campus.
 
A

Atenhaus

Member
While we've got pretty good bike infrastructure in Seattle, the act of biking for a lot of casual riders is a daunting task because we're so hilly. With that being said, if you're in good shape physically, biking here can be very rewarding.
 
K

KodaRuss

Member
Austin is way too high on that list. I wouldn't call it bike friendly. Yeah a lot of people rides bike but you really have to be committed to riding a bike in Austin.
 
S

Stinkles

Clothed, sober, cooperative
Seattle- six months of drizzle, nothing but hills, confusing bike lanes and insanely dangerous downtown.

Lol.


I mean we do have a great trail.
 
S

SecretMoblin

Member
Starviper said:
Minneapolis only up at #6? We have bike lanes and bike rental setups all over the city along with a bike highway, kinda surprised at this.
Click to expand...

ColdLasagna said:
This, that list is bogus.. everyone knows Portland and Minneapolis/St Paul got this on lock.
Click to expand...

Ya Mpls and Portland are great bike cities, but given some of the criteria:

We look at everything from miles of bike lanes to the percentage of cycling commuters who are female—a key indicator of safe bike infrastructure—to the number of cyclist-friendly bars.
Click to expand...

I can see why the rankings might not be exactly as some of us expect. Regardless, the amount of bike infrastructure being built in Mpls in the coming years is fantastic and will help encourage more of it. Also important to note that a lot of businesses in the area, especially downtown, are giving employees a small bonus or perk for biking to work.
 
E

Empty Space

Member
Silkworm said:
Ah, nice to see Gainesville, FL on there. When I went to UF back in the day, I really enjoyed biking around that area. Glad to see they still seem to be bike friendly though given the student population, I suppose that's not too surprising :)
Click to expand...

If you step off campus this immediately stops being the case. Yeah people are generally pretty civil driving and there's not too much traffic, but there really aren't dedicated bike lanes or paths anywhere.
 
O

OniBarubary

Banned
Boston's alright depending on which part of the city you are in.

However, if you ride your bike on the sidewalk instead of in the bike lane if there is one, or do not treat your bike as a vehicle and ride it obeying traffic laws (which is what you're supposed to do) then I will clothesline you off that shit if you even give me a remotely dirty look for being in your way or slowing you down when we're both on the sidewalk.

Like seriously. Bike riders pick and choose which laws apply to them in this city and it's really fucking annoying.

...then again, so do pedestrians and car drivers soooooo...maybe it's more of a human problem.
 
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