Bicycle freindly Cities
#51
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The parts of Wales I've visited would be nice. Hay-on-wye https://www.hay-on-wye.co.uk/ seemed like the perfect little town to me ... I'd have loved to spend some more time there.
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#52
my nice bike is at home
You must travel for real cycling utopia euro cities such as :
Munich
Paris
Berlin
seem to have it figured out
Copenhagen did look great but I didn't have my bike with me.
Amsterdam is supposed to be good. It is a smallish city though.
Most US cities, are horrible alas.
I also thought Boston felt safer than NYC. NYC is not the worst actually...
Seoul, Korea is also very bad for "commuting" it is really towards the bottom of the list , unless you only ride the river path.
Munich
Paris
Berlin
seem to have it figured out
Copenhagen did look great but I didn't have my bike with me.
Amsterdam is supposed to be good. It is a smallish city though.
Most US cities, are horrible alas.
I also thought Boston felt safer than NYC. NYC is not the worst actually...
Seoul, Korea is also very bad for "commuting" it is really towards the bottom of the list , unless you only ride the river path.
Last edited by kraftwerk; 09-21-08 at 11:30 PM.
#53
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I want to move to Santa Barbara, gorgeous community. Lots of climbing + the gorgeous ocean scenery. I'm going cycling up there next weekend when I visit my sister at the UCSB dorms. Can't wait!
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Yeah, I don't get the recommendation for Chicago either. The winters are ridiculous (I know, I know, HTFU), no one respects the few bike lanes that exist, there are no hills ... The only positive I can think of is that we don't have many rattlesnakes.
Chicago fans: how about giving a reason why you think Chicago is a great bicycling city.
Chicago fans: how about giving a reason why you think Chicago is a great bicycling city.
#56
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san fran is the place to be...great riding, many great lbs, great places to ride...3 mountains to climb, lots of great food and other things to do.
#57
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You must travel for real cycling utopia euro cities such as :
Munich
Paris
Berlin
seem to have it figured out
Copenhagen did look great but I didn't have my bike with me.
Amsterdam is supposed to be good. It is a smallish city though.
Most US cities, are horrible alas.
I also thought Boston felt safer than NYC. NYC is not the worst actually...
Seoul, Korea is also very bad for "commuting" it is really towards the bottom of the list , unless you only ride the river path.
Munich
Paris
Berlin
seem to have it figured out
Copenhagen did look great but I didn't have my bike with me.
Amsterdam is supposed to be good. It is a smallish city though.
Most US cities, are horrible alas.
I also thought Boston felt safer than NYC. NYC is not the worst actually...
Seoul, Korea is also very bad for "commuting" it is really towards the bottom of the list , unless you only ride the river path.
#58
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That one looks nice too, but I don't think it is 12 miles from downtown Denver
#59
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My 100 mile summer loop is quite cool throughout the day. Early winter can get wet (45 isn't cold), but that's what fenders are for.
#60
Spin Meister
Chico, California - the town bike-friendly. The terrain in town and to the north, south and west is flat - lots of beautiful farm country beyond the city limits. East of town, the Sierra Nevada and Cascade Mountains serve as giant bike magnets.
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#61
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Minneapolis/St. Paul
Can't swing a dead cat around here without hitting a "bike" path. Minneapolis' downtown is criss-crossed with dedicated bike lanes. Most comes form the presence of the U of M so close to the downtown area. In the suburbs too (I like in Woodbury on the east side) there are LOTS of "bike" trails. I don't ride them because I don't like fighting the kids/pets/leashes/sixteen-abreast-walkers. Our city of 58,000 folks has over 100 miles of paved trails.
https://www.bikeleague.org/media/press/
https://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/bicycles/
https://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/bicy...Bicyclists.asp
https://www.stpaul.gov/index.asp?NID=460
Can't swing a dead cat around here without hitting a "bike" path. Minneapolis' downtown is criss-crossed with dedicated bike lanes. Most comes form the presence of the U of M so close to the downtown area. In the suburbs too (I like in Woodbury on the east side) there are LOTS of "bike" trails. I don't ride them because I don't like fighting the kids/pets/leashes/sixteen-abreast-walkers. Our city of 58,000 folks has over 100 miles of paved trails.
https://www.bikeleague.org/media/press/
https://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/bicycles/
https://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/bicy...Bicyclists.asp
https://www.stpaul.gov/index.asp?NID=460
#63
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Yeah, I don't get the recommendation for Chicago either. The winters are ridiculous (I know, I know, HTFU), no one respects the few bike lanes that exist, there are no hills ... The only positive I can think of is that we don't have many rattlesnakes.
Chicago fans: how about giving a reason why you think Chicago is a great bicycling city.
Chicago fans: how about giving a reason why you think Chicago is a great bicycling city.
Oh, if I can give a "worst" where I've lived, Id say Ft. Lauderdale.
#64
Full Member
Silicon Valley and whole of SF Bay Area is very friendly to bikers, IMO. Bike lanes everywhere and easy access to some of the best mountain roads for weekend/early morning enjoyment.
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+1
I just finished a 22 miler in the city and it was less like a ride and more like an epic battle against smog breathing monsters...not that my car is much better than the other things people choose to drive here. I sa w a guy driving a hummer....he lives next to me. He works 3 miles away. Seriously...why? More power to him if he likes to spend his money that way.
#66
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What do you want out of this city that is bike related?
A wide selection and/or variety of road rides? Solo or group?
A community that you can cycle around for your day to day activities?
A community that shares your (non-cycling) interests and has hard connections to support them?
My general observations are that you can find a bike friendly community/location within so called bike unfriendly cities and find bike unfriendly community/locations within so labeled bike friendly cities.
Al
A wide selection and/or variety of road rides? Solo or group?
A community that you can cycle around for your day to day activities?
A community that shares your (non-cycling) interests and has hard connections to support them?
My general observations are that you can find a bike friendly community/location within so called bike unfriendly cities and find bike unfriendly community/locations within so labeled bike friendly cities.
Al
#67
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Very little rain, too. I think the last time it rained in San Francisco was last March.
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Personally, I like Paris ... I've visited it twice and enjoyed both visits very much ... but I think it would start to feel a bit crowded for me. I would prefer a smaller town outside of Paris.
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#69
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Paris didn't seem very bike friendly to me last time I was there, but I was only in central, touristy, Paris. There were a lot of bikes in central London, probably due to the congestion pricing, and in Hyde Park.
Copenhagen was far away the best place to ride. Bike lanes on every road that were usually more crowded with bike traffic than car traffic. I guess winter can be rough, but I was there in June.
Copenhagen was far away the best place to ride. Bike lanes on every road that were usually more crowded with bike traffic than car traffic. I guess winter can be rough, but I was there in June.
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Another place I enjoyed and felt very comfortable was Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. I loved the location ... ocean and mountains ... and Hobart's size wasn't overwhelming.
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#71
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You can be car-free in this town, easily, if you want to. If you live in/around downtown Santa Barbara, everything from Carpinteria to Goleta is within an easy, rolling 15 miles in either direction. It's often faster to get places by bike than by car, and the ample bike parking provided means it's truly "door to door" almost anywhere you go downtown.
In terms of civic amenities, we may not have "the best" of any one thing, but we've got everything... zoo, museums, theater, abundant public parks & gardens, harbor & waterfront, historic downtown, lots of beaches, mountain wilderness, and all of it is within an easy 10-30 minute bike ride from town. Unlike other SoCal areas, where everything is at least an hour by car from everything else, usually through rush hour traffic.
Oh, and the weather is awesome, too. You can easily commute year round, and only have to deal with occasional rain a few times a year. There is tons of great riding between Santa Barbara and Carpinteria, or you can charge up the mountains if you like. Cycling is very popular here, everything from college kids, to urban hipsters, to commuters, to racers, to tourists cruising in surreys and pedicabs. Very active local bike advocacy community, too.
If this isn't a bicycle paradise, I don't know what is! The only problem is that it's expensive, but like most expensive places, it's with good reason
Last edited by surfimp; 09-22-08 at 10:53 PM.
#73
out walking the earth
Incorrect. If you want to race there's a race in Central or Prospect every weekend (30 open races, plus all the Saturday CRCA club races). Plus there's another race within an hour every weekend. Kissena on Wednesday nights, and Floyd on Tuesday. If you're adventurous you can ride to Rockleigh NJ on Thursday nights do the race there and ride back for something in the 75-100 mile range.
#74
Peloton Shelter Dog
Incorrect. If you want to race there's a race in Central or Prospect every weekend (30 open races, plus all the Saturday CRCA club races). Plus there's another race within an hour every weekend. Kissena on Wednesday nights, and Floyd on Tuesday. If you're adventurous you can ride to Rockleigh NJ on Thursday nights do the race there and ride back for something in the 75-100 mile range.
#75
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Lots of little cities and bigger towns surrounding Boulder and Denver are great. Boulder and Denver have lots of bike lanes, an established bike community too, but the automobile traffic is a bit too much for me to ride in every day. Some other people mentioned Golden and Colorado Springs. Those towns are great for bikes. Lots of pro and Olympic type training programs are based in Colorado Springs.
My favorite biking area area in Colorado is Fort Collins and Loveland, and the little towns that have become suburbs around them. It is a lot like Boulder as far as having a large biking community, lots of bike lanes, and lots of great prairie and foothill/mountain routes from your driveway; but with a lot less traffic, and the automobile drivers are much less aggressive in general.
There are definitely better places to visit and bicycle on vacation (parts of France, Italy, Spain, California, etc.), but this area is also relatively affordable to live in.
My favorite biking area area in Colorado is Fort Collins and Loveland, and the little towns that have become suburbs around them. It is a lot like Boulder as far as having a large biking community, lots of bike lanes, and lots of great prairie and foothill/mountain routes from your driveway; but with a lot less traffic, and the automobile drivers are much less aggressive in general.
There are definitely better places to visit and bicycle on vacation (parts of France, Italy, Spain, California, etc.), but this area is also relatively affordable to live in.