pgjackson

Bicycling just published it's "America's Top 50 Bike-Friendly Cities" list and San Diego didn't make the cut. Pittsburgh is on the list, but not San Diego. What am I missing? There are probably more cyclists and bike shops here per capita than any other city in the country. Bike lanes are virtually everywhere and motorists, for the most part, are extremely polite to us.

https://www.bicycling.com/news/advoca...iendly-cities#

Jobiensis

I'd have to agree with it not being listed. I wouldn't even consider riding a bike downtown. San Diego county has some nice riding, but a bunch of it involves small country roads with no shoulder, much less a bike lane. Lots of cyclists, but that has more to do with the weather and activity level of SoCal.

aramis

San Diego's not that "city-like". It's really spread out, I remember the public transit being awful there so I can't imagine it's that easy to actually get places by bike.

MegaTom

I will cede Orlando's spot on the list to San Diego. You deserve it more.

jmX

What a joke. Long beach and LA are listed? Really? You'd have to pay me to ride there regularly. Where's Irvine, CA? I'm not even sure they have a single major street in Irvine without a bike lane! Pop of 200k people certainly makes it big enough to make the list, and I doubt there's any city listed with a higher density of bike lanes.

Then there's the quote about #1, Portland:
"

Seattle Forrest

I'm surprised we're only #10. They must be holding our topography against us.

This is our Fredly mayor:



You can tell that's Seattle by the lack of sunlight.

Essex

They listed NYC as a top choice. Man, there is something wrong with the eval. standards here. Sure, they are thinking of adding bikes lanes and just to see if they are used I go on them at various points. For the most part they are 90% unused.

rearviewbeer

I can see why San Diego would not make the list of bike friendly places. Too many hills, too spread out. A great place to ride longer recreational distances, great weather (the best), friendly atmosphere, but not practical for the everyday cyclist/commuter.

Amazing Portland is #1, and Eugene #9 (I have houses in both areas) considering it rains 9 months straight...

Chaco

I was pretty amazed L.A. was on the list, that's for sure. I had to spend about 4 weeks in L.A., and I was ecstatic to get back to S.D., where I can ride out of my garage and go 80 miles in virtually any direction (except west LOL), with bike lanes, relatively good roads, and, for the most part, drivers who accept our right to be on the road. That's hardly the case in L.A. I think the article must have been written based on the press releases from city halls, rather than feedback from actual cyclists.

San Diego county, while way ahead of LA, IMO, has its ups and downs. I'm much more familiar with North County than the city proper. Carlsbad and Oceanside are pretty good. Carlsbad even resurfaced all their bike lanes along 101.
Encinitas, Solana Beach, La Jolla, and Rancho Santa Fe are pretty bad as far as road conditions go, especially along 101. Considering that on the weekends there must be over 1,000 cyclists going over these roads, it would be nice if they did something about it, but I'm not holding my breath.

pallen

I hope this is a reflection of a lot of cities having done a lot of work to make their cities more bike-friendly. I was halfway hoping to see Ft Worth make the list this time, we have come a long way in the last couple of years with infrastructure improvements. Apparently, we arent the only city doing so.

cbuddy2005

Too many hills? Too spread out? C'mon, SD is great for cycling, if you're a CYCLIST and not an inner city commuter. Great weather, plenty of places to go. Many athletes used to live there and train--maybe it's changed. I used to love it years ago. I'm in Texas and Austin sux for cycling of any kind. Narrow roads, not enough good hills, people getting run over here all the time. I miss the mild weather too in SD, but the heat here works well to toughen you up. Torrey Pines grade is classic--wish we had it here.
But, maybe my memories of SD are way different than reality now. Mores the pity.

pgjackson

I get the feeling that this article is more about the fixie/short-range inner-city commuter crowd than the road cyclist. I did a group ride on Monday in North County SD and at least on five separate occasions drivers were waving at us, giving us the thumbs-up and a couple drivers actually pulled up next to us at stop lights, rolled down their window and said "have a nice ride". I can't imagine a more bike-friendly place.




Pittsburg? Really?

Silvercivic27

Have you ever ridden in Pittsburgh? My guess would be no since you don't even know how to spell it. Classic 41. Classic ego-centric So-Cal 'tude, dude!

GP

San Diego County has great cycling - Sunrise Highway, Palomar Mt, Old Julian Hwy, Rice and Couser Canyons, etc.

City of San Diego sucks.

GP

Long Beach and L.A. are old sprawling cities that have done a lot of work to build bicycle infrastructure. Irvine is a planned community that was built around UCI. You can't compare them.

megalowmatt

I agree. I think Woods Valley Road is one of the most scenic stretches in North County.

achoo

Wait.

You actually read Bicycling?

Oooooh-kay.

zenout

Boulder puts all to shame....Whoever planned boulder must be an avid road biker.Not to mention the elevation puts you in peak shape.

zenout

Mayor photo op claims to be so bike friendly but whats he really done?not much.He shows up once a year at that nightmare ride downtown takes his picture with lance and you dont see him even mention biking the rest of the year.In so cal,Agoura gets my vote.

GP

I agree. There's a similar road in Ramona called Mussey Grade Rd that ends at the San Vicente Reservoir.

De Luz Cyn is scenic too. Not as green as Woods Valley but still nice.

bored117 

Was a little surprised Irvine only got honorable mention while LA made it to top 20 or 30? Interesting.

fishymamba

Nice to see that Thousand Oaks made it on the list.

We do have a pretty nice bike route system:https://ci.thousand-oaks.ca.us/civica...p?BlobID=12311

jmX

Sure, you can't compare their history of city planning, but you can certainly compare them as cities that you ride bicycles in, and which is more suited or "friendly" for that. The clear answer is Irvine, CA. How it got to be that way is irrelevant based on the description of how they chose cities. They state: "To make the list, a city must possess both a robust cycling infrastructure and a vibrant bike culture". The title of their page says "America's Top 50 bike friendly cities", not "top 50 crap places to dodge cars, but are trying hard".

Bike culture in Irvine is alive and well as far as road biking goes, and weekly crits are held in the city each summer. Probably not many hipsters or people with cargo bikes, but who's to say road biking culture isn't as good.

Irvine has 6x the miles of bike lanes, 50x the mups, and yet only 1.7x the population.


I don't live in Irvine, and I almost never ride through there, I really just think its silly that it's not on the list. I'm impressed by the bike infrastructure every time I'm in the city.

sqroot3

wow ridic that sd, where i picked up cycling, didn't make the list. i love/live in la, and biking in the city proper is the dumps.

Mike F

I have live here since 1971 so I have no comparisons to any other city tha San Diego. With the weather, coast, mountains I think it's a great place to ride. The city is trying to get better regarding biking making some improvements with the south bay bike route and the mission bay bridge but for inner city biking the roads just plain suck. The sdbc sent questionnaires to all the mayoral candidates and only got two responses out of four back. Filner and Fletcher. Sad since we've had several people killed already this year. Biking doesn't seem to be a priority in the city

I would say county yes. City no. The city has enormous possibilities but it's not a priority