Category: Bike Lanes

Do you live in a large city or a small town? Are you curious about how your place ranks against other places in the United States (and even the world) for cycling?

Every year, the not-for-profit organization People For Bikes releases its latest statistics, which illustrate why certain cities and towns are best for bicycling. The organization’s conclusions are based on its BNA (Bicycle Network Analysis), which includes several factors.

What is People For Bikes Bicycle Network Analysis (BNA)?

While statistics and city planning can reveal much information about a place’s dedication to cycling, People For Bikes bases its BNA review on six areas. These six factors relate to accessibility and how easy it is to use bikes to accomplish various tasks.

People – How bike networks connect people to one another for work, play, or other reasons.

Core Services – This means critical services, such as food, healthcare, work, etc.

Recreation – How well a city connects people on bikes to parks, community centers, off-street bike paths, and trails.

Opportunity – Job data from the U.S. Census along with schools of various types and kinds.

Shopping – Retail destinations.

Transit – Bus, subway, streetcar, light rail, commuter train that can easily be accessed by bike.

In addition to the six areas mentioned above, People For Bikes also considers things like safe speeds, protected bike lanes, reallocated space for cycling and walking, intersection treatments, network connections, and trusted data. These areas fall under the acronym SPRINT.

Number of Cities Rated

Some cities obviously have better cycling infrastructure than others and some have just a small amount. Of the 1,484 cities in the U.S. and the 249 international cities, People For Bikes rates major cities and smaller cities.

Smaller cities like Provincetown, MA, Minneapolis, MN, and Milwaukee, WI all scored well. It’s also important to note that some cities that didn’t make the list last year appeared this year, such as Longwood, CO.

The scale used is from 0-100. 0-20 indicates a city with weak infrastructure whereas a score from 80-100 indicates a city with good infrastructure. A large-scale city like New York or San Francisco that scores 50 and above means that city is close to receiving an excellent rating.

The thing to keep in mind, since this is a yearly review and rating, some cities that performed badly the year before may receive a better rating the following year. That is the case for three of the cities mentioned above.

Last Thoughts

An organization that does a review and rating of a city and its cycling accessibility may or may not always be accurate. The nice thing to see, based on the graph in the article, is that cities around the world are slowly but surely investing more time and money to make their towns bike-friendly. And that is important in an era where fossil fuels and greenhouse gases continue to alter our climate.