General Cycling Discussion - The best city in the US for cycling

My own city will not get my vote. I really only know of two cities that I've heard are the best for cycling. Some of the requirements are nice bike routes, great bike stores, advocacy groups, relationship of cyclists to motorists, etc.
The top two cities that I know of are Madison, Wisconsin and San Diego, California.

Would anyone like to vote for their own city? Which BFer living in one of these cities would confirm for me that theirs' is a great city for cycling?

I may never make it to San Diego in my lifetime. I really would like to one day have an extended visit to Madison, and get in some miles while I'm there.

Madison Wisconsin Bicycle Community Website:

http://danenet.wicip.org/bcp/

Cool site!

I live in Encinitas (www.ci.encinitas.ca.us), a coastal suburb about 40km north of downtown San Diego. The weather is perfect for cycling year-round, and there are many good roads with wide shoulders, appropriately low speed limits, or marked bike lanes. There are excellent Class I bikeways, as well, along the San Luis Rey River (Oceanside) and the San Diego River (Mission Bay). For the most part, San Diego motorists tolerate cyclists well; they certainly see alot of us out there, which I think enhances our safety considerably. The San Diego County Bicycle Coalition is very active, very vocal, widely respected, and very effective.

The downsides of San Diego cycling are: 1) road construction crews often block off shoulders and/or bike lanes; 2) some roads have very narrow outer lanes; 3) we have more than our share of cell-phoning pilots of "full-size"* SUVs; 4) the salty air promotes surface rusting; and 5) [a problem only for those with an inferiority complex] you cannot ride anywhere along the coast without being passed by a faster cyclist on a more expensive bike.

*e.g.: Ford Excursion

Marquette, Michigan was rated #2 in the country for mountain biking!

Ok, so I have my work cut out for me...

:)

Denver has a wonderful bike path route. One that really works. I can go out the front door of my house and go at least two hundred miles without ever being on a street, except for some crossings. The weather is great about 9 months of the year, with 3 months being pretty miserable for riding.

There are LOTS of bicyclists, tremendous LBS's, and generally the motorists are pretty friendly.

There is a tremendous trail system in the mountains - both for road and mtn bikes. Challenging passes, etc. You will find these multi-use paths a little more difficult because of peds and neophyte bikers who rent bikes from local shops, and like to sight-see, and don't know how to come down a steep, winding hill. But, if you choose your time and place, these can be avoided. I.e., they don't like to get up early in the am.

Bicycle Colorado is a strong advocacy group, and there are some really good clubs. You can participate in the "Triple By-Pass" which goes 140 miles+, going over three high mountain passes in one day = 10, 11 and 12,000 feet passes. You can do the Denver-Aspen Classic - just a couple of hundred miles of rugged mtn passes in one day.

But, I do love riding in San Diego!!

5) [a problem only for those with an inferiority complex] you cannot ride anywhere along the coast without being passed by a faster cyclist on a more expensive bike.


I don't have to all the way to San Diego for that to happen!:D

Northern San Diego County has great scenery. Shoulders are decent and if you get away from the coast and get into the back country the traffic can be sparse.
Where else can you cycle mountains, desert, coast, and hills with 345 days of mostly sunny conditions and temperatures above 50 degree C. I think almost a bikers paradise. Why else would many pro teams train here. But if not careful you will find areas known for that California gridlock.

Yes, when I was in San Diego, I liked the riding, but only when we got out of the total down-town area. I'm not one for breathing exhaust and dodging taxi's. Although...there are a lot of good restaurants down-town...

Actuallly, my second home, Trexlertown, PA is a hot-spot for cycling (especially track cycling). People from all over the country as well as other countries (Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, Trinidad, Great Britian, +) come to race and train during the summer. We have excellent back roads with low traffic just about anywhere you go and of course, the world-class velodrome.

velo

My vote would go for New York City.
With hundred miles of bike paths and parks. almost all the bridges
have bike paths (must see the city from the brooklyn bridge). A ride thro the city even with lots of traffic is not as bad as one migth think (the city is best seen by bike). a hundred bike messagers cant be all wrong.
there is a touring company that give guided tours.
www.toursbybike.com.


K

Originally posted by cyclezealot
Where else can you cycle mountains, desert, coast, and hills with 345 days of mostly sunny conditions and temperatures above 50 degree C. I think almost a bikers paradise. Why else would many pro teams train here. But if not careful you will find areas known for that California gridlock.

Well that sounds good apart from the 50 degrees C bit :eek: I hope you meant 50 degrees F instead.

Yeah Chris, that would be preparation for Venutian olympics.

I'd cast my vote for San Diego; great weather year-round, and a large cyclist population -- meaning that most of the motorists I encountered there know how to share the bloody road.

Does anyone know what US city has the highest number of miles of bike lanes/paths? Maybe this is best answered per capita...

Originally posted by A F Baker
Would anyone like to vote for their own city?
No, and Yes.

No, because I hear that other cities are so much better for cycling.

Yes, because this is where I live, and there are many great streets to cycle on to get where I want to go.

I believe Chicago was voted top cycling city this year.

RayBan, Have you read The Immortal Class by Travis Culley? It is about cycling and Chicago. I finished it a few months ago. I think I'll read it again really soon.

Nope never read it. I've got my nose buried in tech manuals lately!

I could vote for where I live if I was a total idiot. :(
Instead I'll just agree with Bicycling magazine. Atlanta tied for last place as the worst cycling city. I guess that's why so many people ask why I commute and ride on the roads. :confused:

I'm still looking for the best city. It should be warm (>45 degrees in the winter), not flat, light traffic, SUVs and cell phones in cars are illegal. :D

Originally posted by A F Baker

I may never make it to San Diego in my lifetime. I really would like to one day have an extended visit to Madison, and get in some miles while I'm there.

San Diego - such a place to be!

Sorry to revive an old thread, but i had to chime in.

I think Washington, DC is the best cycling city on the East Coast.... when I visited the C&O canal towpath last summer, I was amazed at how many traffic free bike paths there were all over the city. And many of them were interconnected too. Check it out: www.bikewashington.org

Washington, DC on the east coast; San Diego, California on the west coast.

Another good bike city is Savannah, Georgia. You can camp on Tybee Island and bike into the city daily. A bike is a good way to see all the beautiful mini parks around the city, and the waterfront walk with all the restaurants and entertainment is great. Then you can bike out of the city to tour the various plantations. Savannah is a great city.

wow, nobody's mentioned Portland Oregon...

Tampa, FL <shakes head in disgust> Driver / cyclist conflicts abound. No visable advocacy presence. Did I mention psychos behind the wheel?

I was very impressed with Burlington Vt. when I visited there last spring.

I live in a rural county so can't vote for here.

Joe
:beer:

I used to live in Austin, Texas and I rode there alot. It sure gets my vote. Great streets for riding. Miles upon miles of hills to ride, beautiful scenery, and some of the most beautiful women I have ever seen while riding through the campus at the University of Texas.

Drivers were courteous and I felt safer riding the roads there than anywhere else I have ridden. Of course, riding anywhere is better than where I am now: Houston (which gets my vote as the worst place to ride).

LoneStar,

yeah Houston's not so ideal: i lived there 2 1/2 years and hated it! the last year i lived inside the loop and rode my bike to work downtown which wasn't so bad... Houston drivers are not so nice to cyclists, and at least once a week my coworkers offered me a ride and asked when my car would be out of the shop (they had no comprehension that i CHOSE to VOLUNTARILY ride my bike!)

Austin: well as a student it was great (i was at UT 5 years) and the hills do offer some good cycling both on and off road... i'd say Austin is definitely the best cycling city in Texas and probably the best in the south (excluding the Southwest). i lived in Dallas and it is ín many ways worse than Houston for cycling as drivers are even more aggressive (although for recreational cycling it is pretty strong)... San Antonio is also less than ideal with massive sprawl and unbounded growth. unfortunately i think Austin was much better for cycling back in the 80s and early 90s when it was still a small town without the Ben White loop and all the crap up north along 360 and Mopac... the growth of the sprawl in hills that were almost unpopulated back in the early 90s is mindboogling (like 2244/2222 going west out towards Lake Travis)

but, for cycling quality Austin doesn't begin to compare to Portland OR or Seattle or Boulder CO... or even many of the big Northeast cities...

as far as i know Austin still hasn't built the rail they've been "unable" (unwilling) to finance for the last 5 years or more... although they've financed ungodly numbers of new roads...

Although i've never rode in San Diego.. I love the city.... as far as places I have rode in.. I'd have to vote for Irvine, CA... plenty of bike lanes.. a lot of scenery if you get out into the hills.. on the weekends.. you can ride near the empty industrial parks, and be totally alone... and the weather is almost always decent... it's Orange County afterall.. about 80 miles north of San Diego

jeff

For recreational riding -- not commuting -- I'll put my vote in for the SF Bay area. Not so much for riding in the city itself, but I think that if you live in one of the cities along the peninsula you have access to some of the best riding near a major metropolitan area in the world. Forget it if you don't like hills, 'tho.

Didnt we do this thread awhile ago? I remember posting a -Huge- list of reasons Dayton was the best including:

Home of the Wright Brothers, and a real home-town cycling atmosphere
A huge number of advocacy groups including www.daytoncyclingclub.org bikemiamivalley.org www.joinomba.org....

a network of bikeways (almost 200 miles, not including the one that connects dayton to cincinnati...)
Home of Huffy, which has been a huge proponent of cycling, especially in the area.
Also home of Airborne.net, phatmats.com, and extremely good shops like Gaanasari Cycles (gaanasari.com)
regional transit authority includes bike racks on public busses
one of the first cities to have bike-cops, a model police dept bike division, and the place PD's across the country send their bike cops for training..

um...
There are lots of reasons, most of which I cant remember at the moment since I just stumbled across this thread ;)

When I lived in Chico, CA I remember some of the best roads around. Tons of hills and flats. Tons of Mountain Trails. Some of the best bike shops I can ever remember. Most notably of which was CycleSport.

The flats were all the central valley farmland. Long stretches of road and no stopsigns.

The hills were all the foothills to the sierra. So keep going down the roads and end up in the mountains. Again, few stop signs, and great climbs. Chico also boasts the nation's largest City Park (Bidwell Park). Most of it is unimproved wilderness, with many mountain bike trails and swim holes.

It has my vote.

The bay area is a close second. Sometimes I miss my flats.