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Your vote for most bike friendly state.

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Your vote for most bike friendly state.

Old 08-27-08, 02:56 PM
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Your vote for most bike friendly state.

Have you cycled in states other than your own? How do you rate the bike friendfliness in the states you are familiar with... In terms of bike infrastructure , law , climate, and to the degree motorists accept your useage of the public highways. We'd make a poll out of this, but polls are not allowed for as many as 50 states.
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Old 08-28-08, 01:29 PM
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To me it seems regional and spotty, I think it's hard to go state by state. I've had extremes in the same state... waived and smiled at, then shortly later yelled at to get off the road (even though I was right of the white line).

I try my best to put on a good face so not to make more "bicycle haters"... but I too have lost my cool at times...
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Old 08-28-08, 02:19 PM
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Definately NOT Florida Gainesville does seem pretty good though. I've never ridden there but they do have bike lanes in town and on some of the main highways.
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Old 08-28-08, 07:47 PM
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I haven't ridden much west of the rockies. so I can't judge those states.

I don't know of any one state or region that excels in all of your criteria, but If I had to pick one state in which it does adequately across the board I would pick NY state. I ride most everyday in all types of traffic and situations and I have ridden most areas of the state . With a few exceptions I can't complain about living and riding here. Very seldom do motorists hassle me. The bicycle specfic facilties we have are generally in good condition. The state maintains their roads very well and most have a 18" or wider paved shoulder so you can ride out of the travel lane if you wish. The state also maps and maintain several designated bike routes across the state. If you are a touring cyclist ( or hiker) state park campgrounds will almost always let you camp without a reservation.

The only complaint that I have is that while we have very good passenger train ( Amtrak) service bicycle accomadations are almost non existant except for one daily train ( out of 8).
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Old 08-28-08, 07:51 PM
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New York is better than Michigan.
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Old 08-28-08, 07:57 PM
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I was curious for as much input as possible. My hunch would have been Oregon would have received the most votes
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Old 08-29-08, 03:59 AM
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I've ridden in about a dozen states. Oregon has easily been the best so far--both for rural, mountain riding as well as urban riding in Portland.
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Old 08-29-08, 06:11 AM
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I've ridden in about 25 states by now, either because I lived in the area or because I've done a tour through there. Most of my riding has been rural or suburban. Honestly, I've never really had any "real" problems in any state. (Well, with the exception of Montana -- I think the logging truckers there are paid for each person they kill).
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Old 08-29-08, 08:32 AM
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There seems to be a persistent feeling among both bicyclists and motorcyclists that Florida is really unfriendly toward both types of bikes, overall, due to population demographics. I only have real personal experience in SE Texas and the Austin area, which have gotten MUCH better for bicyclists over the last decade, but Texas is so large that it has several cultural regions, so what is true of one region may be totally irrelevant elsewhere in Texas. I noticed that Colorado seemed bike-friendly way back in the 1970's, as I remember seeing cyclists actually using the streets, which I had not yet seen at all in Texas back then.
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Old 08-29-08, 10:43 AM
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There are several places in my home State of California that are great for Cycling. The weather may be friendlier than most states if you like to cycle all year. I will have to add a caveat. The Cities aren’t all the same. Some are hard to reach without going on the freeway and bikes aren’t allowed. But with urban sprawl you can pretty much go all up and down the coast by bike. Some cities don’t seem bike friendly at all but I won’t mention LA.

I have biked in Colorado but only a bit. The Denver and Colorado Springs area are very bike friendly. I haven’t been to Seattle in years but I never found western Washing State to be ideal for biking. Too wet and not enough shoulders to ride on.
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Old 08-29-08, 02:10 PM
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I have pretty limited experience statewise, but it includes polar opposites:

Oklahoma (where I grew up)
- Infrastructure: few dedicated bike lines, narrow road shoulders, not allowed on highways
- Law: not much experience, but no special protections that I'm aware of
- Climate: extreme wind, rain, ice, cold and heat at various times of the year, but it's mostly flat!
- Motorist attitudes: My experience in 5 years of commuting included plenty of incoherent phrases shouted at me from cars passing quickly. I was also hit by a car once.

Oregon (where I live now)
- Infrastructure: lots of dedicated bike lanes in larger towns across the state, MUPs all over
- Law: vehicles must give cyclists enough space to not strike a cyclist if that cyclist fell; we have bike lawyers
- Climate: western Oregon is moderate throughout the year (it never REALLY rains, it just mists heavily)
central Oregon gets fairly extreme seasonal temperatures
- Motorist attitudes: I've been impressed in my 3 years here - motorists regularly wave me through stop signs and give me a wide berth.
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Old 08-30-08, 12:10 AM
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Hawaii...end of discussion.
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Old 09-01-08, 03:45 PM
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On a cross-country bike trip from Los Angeles to Washington DC about 31 years ago, I thought that Colorado was the most bike friendly state; Kansas, West Virginia and Virginia (except suburban DC) were pretty good also. I'll reserve comment on the worst ;-)
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Old 09-01-08, 04:34 PM
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the best place to ride a bike is in colorado, i went to snowmass (near aspen) for a skiing trip with my father's friend and after the ski slopes closed down i would rent a bike for 30$, the uphill downhill rides are amazing and the air is thin so you get better lungs when you get back to chicago. i heard ppl talking about colorado mountains being extremely dangerous to ride on because of AMS (active mountain sickness). when i was there it didn't affect me. other than colorado i would have to say the coastline of florida in non populated areas. (sarasota)
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