Commuting - Good commuting cities?

Im looking to relocate where i can commute by bike more easily, im in the tennessee hills now and 30 miles roundtrip would be a little bit much on asteady basis, do y'all know any really commuter friendly cities, on the east half of U.S.? Thanks for any suggestions

Biking ZED,

I live in Stone Mountain, Georgia, about 14 miles outside of Atlanta. I don't have a problem cycling the whole 28 to 30 mile round trip, as far as finding a pleasant route goes. I find it very enjoyable.

Check out these websites for more information:

www.atlantabike.org (Atlanta Bicycle Campaign)
www.bikesbl.org (Southern Bicycle League)
www.chainguard.org (Chainguard advocacy)

Atlanta may have good employment opportunities if you're interested.

I have noticed that college town or citites are pretty commuter friendly. Richmond Va., Charlottesville Va., Roanoke Va., Raleigh N.C., Durham N.C., Beach towns are pretty cool. Va. Beach, Rehobeth beach, Myrtle Beach S.C., Nags Head N.C. , Kitty Hawk N.C. , Norfolk Va. , Hampton VA., I am not to familiar with Ga. DO NOT GO TO D.C.!!!!!

I second the opinion regarding college towns, which can be great places to live, anyway. I realize you were asking about cities in the Eastern time zone, but Eugene and Corvallis OR and Davis CA all meet the bicycle friendly college town paradigm. Despite the great weather, San Diego County is a mixed bag for bicycle commuting, although it is better than Los Angeles, where I grew up.

LA is definitely not a good commuting city. If you can find a job that's close by to where you live, you're lucky. My town does have some good bike lanes, but not enough. If you work in Downtown, and live in the suburbs, then you could take a commuter train into downtown--provided of course, you live nearby the train station. There's just too many damn cars out here!

Hunter writes, DO NOT GO TO DC!!! Hmmm, well have to take issue with that. We've got a trail system which is extensively used by cycling commuters. I ride about 12 miles to the Pentagon and spend only about a quarter of my ride on roads. Very pleasant, I ride alongside the Potomac and often at a faster clip than the bumper-to-bumper traffic. Now, DC is a major metropolitan area, so riding into the into the thick of the city meanings duking it out with commuting cars, if you choose that option. Most people lock up their bikes at the Metro station and train the last leg of the trip. Bikes are allowed on the Metro trains on weekends and off-peak hours, though that doesn't help commuters. My biggest problem with commuting on trails is that in the afternoon I have to content with more bikers and runners and, worst or all, people who are trying out their roller blades for the first time! Scary.

Where is the best place for you to work? If you find a job then you can pick where you live.

Wow! nobody has posted to this thread for a long time! Lacey/Olympia, Washington get my vote for great commutes! Awesome MUP's and bike lanes on many major roads.

I wonder if the original posters in this thread are still commuting bi bike??... Maybe they have retired by now.

Chicago is flat and wide open...plenty of bike lanes

Davis is the only town in the US to get the highest rating from the League of American Bicyclists. We have so much bicycle parking here that there is never a situation in which you can't find a secure place to lock your bike. We are quite spoiled.

Back home in San Jose, I got pretty good at locking my bike around trees and staircase rails and so on. Davis is much nicer for biking.

Can you beat my commute in DC? I ride on the Capitol Cresent Trail (Rails to Trails project) which snakes along a ridge overlooking the potomac river. It spits me out in Georgetown where I follow the potomac river, past the Kennedy Center, past the Lincoln Memorial, past the Jefferson memorial, past the Washington Memorial, then along Independence Ave where I ride past Smithothian Castle, past the Air and Space Museum, past the Museum of the American Indian, then head north on 3rd Street which takes me past the Capitol Building and the US District Court, and then into downtown D.C. 14.5 miles door to door. I love it.

I would say the Washington DC area is as good as any for bicycle commuting. My daily commute takes me from the edge of Northern Virginia, straight through DC, and out the other side into Maryland. Traffic moves slowly enough that I am generally riding just under traffic speed.

As far as bike paths, I know of them & ride them when I must (as when I am riding with my children), but generally avoid them, even when a path parallels my route. I find the paths marginally more dangerous and less relaxing than riding on the road with normal vehicular traffic, and there are generally very low speed limits set on paths.

LIve in Newport, Ky. or Ft. Thomas, Ky., and work in downtown Cincinnati, Oh. Great riding, close access to nice countryside riding, nice people, low taxes, cheap cost of living. Lots of hills! To build up your legs.

I've seen numerous videos and articles about Portland, OR. From what I've seen and read, it seems they have a huge commitment to the bicycle there. That makes me happy as I'm moving there in a month.

I would say the Washington DC area is as good as any for bicycle commuting. My daily commute takes me from the edge of Northern Virginia, straight through DC, and out the other side into Maryland.

Man, I would dread driving that kind of route, whether trying to go through the District or taking the long way around on the beltway. It probably makes a lot more sense to bike it.

I don't really have much of a commute at all since I live & work in the Capitol Hill area. However, it's remarkably easy to get to, say, Rosslyn or Crystal City by bike; if I had a folder, the Metro would be even more practical than it is already.

Houston is. NOT!!!

Houston is. NOT!!!

You forgot the "pause", as in "Houston is. ... .. .. Pause... ... . ...... NOT!"

[/Borat] ;)

You forgot the "pause", as in "Houston is. ... .. .. Pause... ... . ...... NOT!"

[/Borat] ;)

Thanks.:beer:

I am partial to Denver. However, with the exception of Boulder the suburbs stink. I'm not even sure if you would call Boulder a suburb of Denver but whatever.
I think the suburbs are starting to come around a bit. At least I am starting to see more riders as of late.

I have noticed that college town or citites are pretty commuter friendly. Richmond Va., Charlottesville Va., Roanoke Va., Raleigh N.C., Durham N.C., Beach towns are pretty cool. Va. Beach, Rehobeth beach, Myrtle Beach S.C., Nags Head N.C. , Kitty Hawk N.C. , Norfolk Va. , Hampton VA., I am not to familiar with Ga. DO NOT GO TO D.C.!!!!!


I suppose it depends on what makes a good commute to to OP. My kneejerk reaction was to say hell no on Raleigh. After contemplating a little more I guess I can say that I would probably be on the bike a lot less if I lived in Wisconsin.

So... I would be interested to hear the OP and others state why they think a place would be a good commuting city.

Raleigh:
- has inconsistent roads. Wide lanes, narrow lanes, good paving, bad paving. I've never seen a bike lane (don't really want one), though I heard mention of one on here recently, and the trails that exist aren't suitable for commuting (with the rare exception). Nearby Cary has some [bike lanes] though.

- drivers don't like cyclists, although I expect that's the case in most places. At least in the REALLY popular cycling cities they're used to seeing them though, which has to help some

- weather... I guess this is the big thing I tend to forget. It hardly ever snows, and if it does, most everything shuts down anyway. It gets hot, but not blistering hot.

- city layout... this is the catch here. A fairly large percentage of the population of Raleigh, Cary and Durham leave town to go to work (in research triangle park), meaning they rely heavily on the highway system to get to their destination. The density is relatively low so you would want to keep your house and work relatively close together.

Most larger towns in NC are about the same. I might rate Durham/Charlotte/Greensboro slightly better for commuters. Most towns in the southeast aren't going to have decent mass-transit if that's a concern, so a bimodal commute would be difficult.

Dropping down to a medium size town, my NC vote would go to Asheville. The entire town, inside the "beltline" is accessible by bike, with hills that aren't that bad. I guess this is more of a car-free concern though than strictly a commuter one.

My feeling is that the majority of the southeast is going to be the same from a road perspective. I have been casually researching alternative places to live and with the possible exception of Asheville, all of my options are central or west coast.

I would not have said Raleigh, either, but then I don't mind my commute at all, so it really depends. If I worked down town, a bike commute would be more difficult as there are few bike-friendly roads that head directly down town, at least from my direction. If I worked with everyone else in the Triangle Research Park, I think commuting would be even harder. I've biked there before, but on the weekend. I bet some of those roads would be pretty unpleasant to bike on during rush hour.

But you're right, the weather definitely gives us an edge over a lot of places, and Raleigh does seem to have some interest in promoting cycling with the Greenways and the posted bike routes, but the circuitous route I have to follow to get downtown without worrying about being run over shows me that they've got some room for improvement.

I can't figure if Durham would be better or not. There's places in Durham I'd be nervous about biking through. Their Greenway does run right through down town, which is nice, but does anyone actually work down town? And are there any trails other than that one?

LA is definitely not a good commuting city. If you can find a job that's close by to where you live, you're lucky. My town does have some good bike lanes, but not enough. If you work in Downtown, and live in the suburbs, then you could take a commuter train into downtown--provided of course, you live nearby the train station. There's just too many damn cars out here!

LA's a bit better now in some spots but it's still dangerous in some areas, and in my opinion requires courage to cycle daily into downtown....hell, I'm afraid to drive in this city at times. People are really aggressive drivers here.




I've seen numerous videos and articles about Portland, OR. From what I've seen and read, it seems they have a huge commitment to the bicycle there. That makes me happy as I'm moving there in a month.

You're going to love Portland. A close friend of mine (and her husband) have been commuting into and out of the city for the past 5 or 6 years. The air is fairly clean over there and it's a very cyclist friendly city. Here's a brochure (http://www.portlandonline.com/shared/cfm/image.cfm?id=41881) and an article (http://www.portlandonline.com/transportation/index.cfm?c=eefjh&a=bfiejh) taken from a generic search from the official Portland site (http://www.portlandonline.com/). Good luck with the relocation.

I know you're looking for the Eastern half of the U.S., but you should check out Olympia, WA where the "rush hour" only lasts about 30 minutes. Lots of bike lanes, generally short commutes for work with great road cycling in every direction and plenty of offroad mountain bike opportunity.

I'm sure this individual has long since moved but since they were from Wisconsin, I'll go ahead and mention Minneapolis, since they'd be used to the climate (more or less). Of the course the climate might be why they left Wisconsin in the first place ;-)

If you consider the Mississippi to be the division between the Eastern part of the country and the Western part, then Minneapolis is partially in the Eastern part so it qualifies.

Lots of bikeways, MUPs, and bike lanes. The terrain is relatively flat. Scenic routes along the Mississippi or through the lakes area/Minnehaha creek are available. The climate is, well..., good for cycling most of the year. It's not terribly wet. It can get hot and humid but most of the summer is great.

During the winter the bike lanes may not get cleaned up very quickly but the MUPs and the bikeways are plowed as good or better than any of the streets. The city recognizes that many people commute year round.

One problem is that you don't see a lot of bike racks. I don't think that stops anybody from commuting but I find it surprising. There's a bar not far from where I live that's extremely popular with cyclists and even they don't have a rack that I can see.

Richmond is great.

You're going to love Portland. A close friend of mine (and her husband) have been commuting into and out of the city for the past 5 or 6 years. The air is fairly clean over there and it's a very cyclist friendly city. Here's a brochure (http://www.portlandonline.com/shared/cfm/image.cfm?id=41881) and an article (http://www.portlandonline.com/transportation/index.cfm?c=eefjh&a=bfiejh) taken from a generic search from the official Portland site (http://www.portlandonline.com/). Good luck with the relocation.

Thanks for the info. We're looking forward to it. One of the main reasons why we're moving there is bike riding.

[/quote]You're going to love Portland. A close friend of mine (and her husband) have been commuting into and out of the city for the past 5 or 6 years. The air is fairly clean over there and it's a very cyclist friendly city. Here's a brochure (http://www.portlandonline.com/shared/cfm/image.cfm?id=41881) and an article (http://www.portlandonline.com/transportation/index.cfm?c=eefjh&a=bfiejh) taken from a generic search from the official Portland site (http://www.portlandonline.com/). Good luck with the relocation.[/quote]

I hear that Portland is the most bike friendly city in the U.S.

Thanks for the info. We're looking forward to it. One of the main reasons why we're moving there is bike riding.

You guys must be so excited. Just in case you haven't checked yet, contact the Portlan Chamber of Commerce since they have so much good info of the types of neighborhoods in the surrounding area. I suspect they also have lots of information on employment, moving preparation guides, community activities, and other aides to help you settle. From what I understand, living in Portland is great but you get a great sense of nature if you live just outside the city.

I've been doing some of the research as well, mainly for Seattle though. I plan on moving there after grad school ends. So I'm kind of in the same boat as you; both cities are great for cyclists if you can deal with the rain.

I hear that Portland is the most bike friendly city in the U.S.


Me too. :D

You guys must be so excited. Just in case you haven't checked yet, contact the Portlan Chamber of Commerce since they have so much good info of the types of neighborhoods in the surrounding area. I suspect they also have lots of information on employment, moving preparation guides, community activities, and other aides to help you settle. From what I understand, living in Portland is great but you get a great sense of nature if you live just outside the city.

I've been doing some of the research as well, mainly for Seattle though. I plan on moving there after grad school ends. So I'm kind of in the same boat as you; both cities are great for cyclists if you can deal with the rain.

Yeah, we plan on doing just that. We are very excited. We are going on a 5 day house hunting trip that her company is paying for and we're planning on searching for a house at least 5 miles outside the city. The housing prices are high there. Going to take some adjustments from where we are now.

Yeah, rain... I've heard of that. Not that I've seen much in the last couple years here. We've been in a drought for as long as I can remember. Guess I'll have to get use to it. That's why they make fenders.

I am partial to Denver. However, with the exception of Boulder the suburbs stink. I'm not even sure if you would call Boulder a suburb of Denver but whatever.
I think the suburbs are starting to come around a bit. At least I am starting to see more riders as of late.


The southern burbs are really good. Littleton / Highlands Ranch. Lots of bike lanes on the road and lots of riders too.

Here's what I'd look for. Sprawl is bad, compact and dense is good.
Freeways and boulevard type roads are bad, two-way main streets are good.
Suburban "pods" with curvy streets are bad, grid street patterns are good.
External suburbs are bad, downtowns and inner suburbs are good.
Buses or commuter trains are very good, lousy public transit is very bad.
Neighborhood is good, apartment complex is bad.
Slow-moving car traffic is good, fast moving cars are bad.
One-ways bad, two-ways good.

I was just in Indianapolis to see the Colts, and it seems to me, from the 8 or so times I've been there that it wouldn't be a bad place to bike commute, and to live even. For a bigger city, most of the inner area seems to not have ridiculously high auto traffic, and it doesn't have as much of a gargantuan, overwhelming scale as Chicago for example. Plenty of stores within walking and biking distance, but not so busy as Chicago. Plus they have the Spaghetti Factory, my favorite restaraunt - and it's cheap to eat there!

Seems to be lacking in public transportation based on my limited exposure, though.

If I were to consider a job change and moving it wouldn't be out of consideration.

For New Yorkers--Staten Island sucks for bicycling in and around the island and cyclists get almost zero courtesy and respect from most Staten Island drivers--but--if you live less than half an hour from the Staten Island Ferry and work in Manhattan-SI is not a bad place to commute from. I have a mostly downhill ride to the Staten Island waterfront at Front street (parallel to Bay Street), which leads to the ferry terminal. (Takes me about 17- 20 minutes at a lesiurely pace of 10 - 15 mph-it's about 3.5 miles from my house to the St. George ferry terminal.) Then a pleasant free ride on the ferryboat for 25 minutes, when I arrive in lower Manhattan. Then a car-free ride up the east side greenway, along the east river and parallel to the FDR drive (for part of that ride I am only a few feet away from the highway, but there is a separation barrier). At 34th street the greenway is interrupted and doesn't resume until the east 60s, but I bike onto 1st Avenue from 34th near the heliport, and only have 23 blocks more to go until I reach my office at 3d Avenue and 55th. So Staten Island-Manhattan is not a bad place to commute from--it takes just about as much time for me (approx. 80 minutes) than it would if I took the Staten Island Rapid Transit train from my house to the ferry and then the subway to from lower Manhattan to East Midtown.

I've seen numerous videos and articles about Portland, OR. From what I've seen and read, it seems they have a huge commitment to the bicycle there. That makes me happy as I'm moving there in a month.

Install Google Earth and then visit this site for the Bike There map published by Metro. I'll wet your appetite:
http://www.metro-region.org/index.cfm/go/by.web/id/15341

Buy a paper copy as well. Preferrably, get it at the downtown Powell's Books. It's unlikely that you've ever seen a bookstore that big in your life (is it the biggest in the world?).

Richmond is great.
I'm having a hard time with this one. Richmond is a great place, yeah, but there are absolutely no bike facilities, not even any bike racks downtown, not to mention bike lanes. I live on the east side, go to downtown and around VCU, and Main Street is not a good commuting route. Neither is Broad once you get west of Church Hill. Franklin's okay going east, but you still have to deal with Main or Broad, but Cary's okay going east once you get past those cobbles in the Slip.

Am I missing something? How do you find Richmond great for commuting?

Boston is an excellent place to ride a bike in. People put it down a lot, but mostly those are people who visited for a week and think they are experts on Boston drivers.

Boston is very compact, mostly flat, and fairly congested. (Congestion = lower motor vehicle speed) I find that it's fun and easy to ride a bike around here.

Copenhagen.

Boston is an excellent place to ride a bike in. People put it down a lot, but mostly those are people who visited for a week and think they are experts on Boston drivers.

Boston is very compact, mostly flat, and fairly congested. (Congestion = lower motor vehicle speed) I find that it's fun and easy to ride a bike around here.

Good answer but did you happen to note that this thread was begun on 3-29-01, and the most recent thread, prior to the preceding one that opened it up again, was on 1-28-08? The reason I looked it up is because there was a similar best bike city thread not too long ago.

Is there a term for glomming on to an old thread and bringing it back to life?

I'm sure this individual has long since moved but since they were from Wisconsin, I'll go ahead and mention Minneapolis, since they'd be used to the climate (more or less). Of the course the climate might be why they left Wisconsin in the first place ;-)

If you consider the Mississippi to be the division between the Eastern part of the country and the Western part, then Minneapolis is partially in the Eastern part so it qualifies.

Lots of bikeways, MUPs, and bike lanes. The terrain is relatively flat. Scenic routes along the Mississippi or through the lakes area/Minnehaha creek are available. The climate is, well..., good for cycling most of the year. It's not terribly wet. It can get hot and humid but most of the summer is great.

During the winter the bike lanes may not get cleaned up very quickly but the MUPs and the bikeways are plowed as good or better than any of the streets. The city recognizes that many people commute year round.

One problem is that you don't see a lot of bike racks. I don't think that stops anybody from commuting but I find it surprising. There's a bar not far from where I live that's extremely popular with cyclists and even they don't have a rack that I can see.

+1 for Minneapolis. As long as you can handle the weather in August.

I'd also add that the drivers around here are pretty tolerant, at least in my experience.

Good answer but did you happen to note that this thread was begun on 3-29-01, and the most recent thread, prior to the preceding one that opened it up again, was on 1-28-08? The reason I looked it up is because there was a similar best bike city thread not too long ago.

Is there a term for glomming on to an old thread and bringing it back to life?

Zombie thread! I didn't even notice! :lol:

Zombie thread! I didn't even notice! :lol:

That's the term I was looking for. Thanks for the reply.

Also, bumping a thread. But I like zombie thread better.

I just moved back to St. Louis after being away for years. It's very bike friendly! Varied terrain, bike lanes, great cycling community, etc.

I would say the Washington DC area is as good as any for bicycle commuting.

+1 here. It's not the best, but as east coast cities go, it's pretty darn good. DC's bike infrastructure has improved dramatically over the past 5 years. Our Mayor is an avid cyclist himself and we have a wonderful department within DDOT (That's the District Department of Transportation) that is VERY dedicated to improving cycling throughout DC. While we've not seen it yet, they are even thinking beyond bike lanes and looking at other efforts that could make cycling easier. The surrounding suburbs are not quite as good for cycling, but are also steadily improving.

This has got to be the oldest thread I've ever bumped.

BTW...if you really like bicycle commuting, do NOT move to Houston.

+1 D.C.

My older brother and I do Arlington to Bethesda (nice) and our younger brother goes into Downtown (he's still alive and actually enjoys it).

It's only getting better...(I think)

I have mixed feelings about Boston. On one hand there are actually a decent number of MUPs and the like that make it a little easier to get around. The Mayor has made making Boston a cycling friendly city a priority lately and it seems to actually be having an effect. That being said... a lot of the drivers are complete dinks. I generally don't have a problem but I'm 6' 2" and don't look like I would take well to being harassed. My girlfriend who is 5' 2" and fairly petite gets honked at and harassed on a fairly regular basis, although we've both noticed this pretty much doesn't happen when we ride together (only when we get slightly separated and are not obviously riding together.)

Glad I'm moving outside the city soon.

Every city is great to commute in. If you live close and don't have major difficulties in between. I would pick the job, then pick the residence to match the commute.

I live in Dallas, which is considered pretty bad evidently. Not to me. My commute is just under 4 miles, all residential, and pretty easy.

I might give a different answer if this was the living car free forum.

Wow, L.A.'s really getting a bad rap in this thread. I ride all over the place and commute all the way across town, 13 miles to get to work. Sure there's tons of traffic, but if you pay attention, use less travelled streets, and don't ride like an idiot, it's a fun city to ride in. I felt less safe when I was riding my brother's bike around in Burlington N.C.

Sorry, not really an answer to the OP's question, but I had to say it..