Jim from Boston

Same here about older cities.

I forgot New Orleans; I had a few days vacation riding there. Rideable, interesting streets, exotic outskirts.

Wilfred Laurier

Montreal
Ottawa
Toronto
Peterborough
Thunder Bay
Vancouver

Never got to bring my bike to any out-of country trips, except one, and we didn`t do any city riding.

enigmaT120

Salem, OR. Meh. What is it with bike lanes that go right up to an intersection where a person in a car can turn right?
Falls City, OR (pop. 1000 or or so)

Cities are necessary evils. I don't like riding in them, but I don't like driving in them, either. Buses are OK, as are the trains in Portland.

Machka 

Absolutely ... he is perfectly welcome to abstain from posting in this thread entirely.

If he ... or anyone ... do not want to share a list of cities they have experienced in a car-free manner, they are completely free NOT to post in this thread. There is no requirement to post in every single thread going in LCF.


But if you are going to post here, post a list of cities you've cycled (or walked) in.

Machka 

I'm with you. And this little exercise was kind of eye-opening for me ... I've been to a whole heap of cities, but I haven't cycled in many. Give me open countryside any day!

Machka 

Interesting observations. We've experienced a similar thing in some of the places we've been.

Zedoo

Detroit, Windsor, and dozens or hundreds of suburbs and exurbs.

zonatandem

From A to Z . . .
Assebroecke to Zilwaukee

Dahon.Steve

When choosing to live in a city, it important to secure good paying employment first. Second, the total distance you have to travel to get to work because bike commuting is becomes a chore if your located more than 10 miles away. Needless to say, public transit options are high on my list but others will have other issues.

1. Employment opportunities
2. Distance from home/apartment
3. Good Schools
4. Public transit
5. Cost of housing
6. Crime


Los Angeles ---- Lots of employment for those with skills. Distance you have to travel can make bike commuting a chore since you can‘t live in lower downtown. Good schools are expensive and public transit is iffy and dependant on where you live. Cost of housing is high unless you intend to live in the bad area. Crime is an issue if you live in the bad part of town.

Boston --- Lots of employment for those with skills. Distance you have to travel may or may not make bike commuting a chore. Good and bad schools but some great universities. Public transit is better than most cities but the cost of housing is high. Crime is not too much of an issue.

Philadelphia ---- Employment opportunities are limited but this is because downtown isn’t that big. I don’t’ know if I would want to bike commute there as there is an abundance of public transit options. Schools are probably expensive since you won’t be able to send your kids to public school. There are some great universities there. Crime is an issue.

New York City --- Employment opportunities are good for those with skills. You can bike commute but why would you with so much public transit. Schools are expensive with some great universities. Cost of housing is high but this is why you’ll need to live 10-15 miles away where bargains can be had. Heck, I was paying $700.00 dollars a month for a studio five years ago while people in Manhattan are paying 6 times that much! Crime is an issue if you live in bad parts.

gerv 

@bikemig, that's a good point. If you were a visitor to Des Moines today, cycling on icy streets with a heavy wind in your face, you might think it wasn't such a wonderful spot to ride in

wipekitty

Places I lived for at least a year and cycled for transportation (including commuting):
- Kalamazoo, MI: Meh. Getting around the city itself was not bad (other than crime). The infrastructure has improved, but is still sort of choppy, and car-culture is dominant.
- East Lansing, MI: Meh. I mostly "cycled" here as a broke college student. Campus and the college area were fine; getting out to useful places (like a grocery store) was challenging.
- Boulder, CO: Parts were good, parts were not. Bike lanes could be a bit scary and disconnected, and drivers usually seemed high (they probably were).
- Denver, CO: Awesome in the winter, a pain in the summer. Infrastructure - including mixed-mode infrastructure - was unbeatable, at least in the city limits, and I was car-free for a time here. In the summer, a bunch of out-of-shape wanna be Tour de France riders and snot-nosed spoiled kids would take to the streets, and navigating around them was a royal pain.
- Fullerton/North OC, CA: Surprisingly, this was one of my favorite places to ride. Southern California streets are HUGE, to accommodate huge cars - so it's almost like an instant bike lane on every street. There were also some pretty nice networks of off-street paths, going to useful places like the beach! The downside: dreams of cars wooshing by at 50MPH; near-death experiences while trying to turn left or pop over a freeway entrance.
- Mobile, AL: Bad roads, bad attitude, bad weather, bad dogs that run in packs. Despite the active cycling community (+1 Mobile!), actually trying to get somewhere on a bike is rather frightening. I did it for a year, though!
-La Crosse, WI: So far, so good! While there's rude drivers everywhere, the attitude here is better than in most places. There's a few places where infrastructure still leaves something to be desired, but the city seems interested in actively improving infrastructure for human-powered transportation.

My votes go to: Denver (if there were less people), OC (if there were less cars), and La Crosse (if there were a better north-south route, which is supposed to come soon).

Wilfred Laurier

It was for exactly these reasons that the Flying Spaghetti Monster invented studded tires and balaclavas!

I have a 14 km ride to get home in a few minutes and I guarantee that we have more ice and a colder wind than Des Moines. Sugoi and Nokian (now Suomi) have got me covered.

auldgeunquers

... if it is, with Machka, we are all going to lose ...

Machka 

It doesn't matter to me how many cities a person may have cycled in, I'm just hoping it might be, in some way, informative.

It's interesting to see where people have been and to read people's perspectives on various cities.

Roody

There are ongoing improvements. All major road projects now include accommodations for bikes, thanks to Complete Streets laws in all the local cities as well as statewide. Lansing's off-street, completely segregated bike trail system is now 18 miles long, with modest improvements in the linkages to East Lansing and the campus area. The bike trail priority is now officially transportation rather than recreation. Considering this is a major car assembly center, still with enormous economic challenges, I think we're doing pretty good.

Of course, we still have a long way to go... The outer suburbs in particular are a major challenge by bike, walking, and bus.

Roody

And there will be photos!

Roody

I'd be interested in reading your perspectives of the cities you've ridden in. Will you be finding time to post your written observations?

Machka 

Ummm ... see Post 2.

Roody

Yes, interesting, I had forgotten.

Astrozombie

I think Roody was hacked by I-Like-To-Bike

I-Like-To-Bike

Nope, just Roody being Roody, forgetting about what he has previously posted; nothing new.

Zedoo

My observations of Detroit may be too old, depending on how much the city has changed. My last downtown trip was more than ten years ago. A few years ago I rode in the northeastern side on a winter night and did not see the bullet holes in a store that was later featured in news. A southeast area, sometimes called Mexicantown, was the only area that seemed crowded. Beggars were a standard feature at downtown bus stops, but bus service is less convenient now, so they may have moved to other locations. Be too polite or misunderstand something and they will follow you for a while if you're walking.

Windsor: Generally a nice place to ride and walk. When I rode my bike to the tunnel, the tunnel buses did not have bike racks, so I locked my bike in Detroit and walked in Windsor. I did not ride there until I had a truck to drive to it. When I missed the last tunnel bus of the night I stayed there outside till morning and watched crews sweep up the night's mess. The city paid people to keep it clean. There's a chain called The Beer Store.

Detroit's suburbs: The northeast side (Macomb County) is mostly flat. There are a few parks with trails and paved paths. There is a velodrome at Bloomer Park. The northwest side (Oakland County) has some long hillclimbs and higher prices.

Wilfred Laurier

That chain is actually, I believe, a partnership between the breweries. The Beer Store is one of only two places you can buy beer in the vast majority of Ontario. The other place is the at the provincial government run liquor store.

Zedoo

I also rode to Port Huron, Ann Arbor, and Toledo, but I didn't see much in those cities. They were places where I could refuel before I ride home.

poormanbiking

I'm been riding in Toledo for a few years now and generally no issues. Downtown to easy riding and the trails farther out are nice but generally aren't connected to shopping or dining establishments.