11 Most Bicycle Friendly Cities
 

Check out the 11 most bicycle friendly cities. Which one would you choose to live and cycle in?

http://www.virgin-vacations.com/site...dly-cities.asp

The one that was preferably overlooked by some two-cent, Googling statistician with questionable cycling knowledge.

San Fran the 8th friendliest? Same place that has a moratorium on adding new cycling facilities? :lol:

-Kurt

Oulu Finland... I have yet to understand why it is so often overlooked; the cycling infrastructure in that city was just amazing.

It certainly beat what I have seen in either Portland or in San Francisco, or even Barcelona.

Oulu has a complete separate bike path network that is built like American freeways (only bike scaled) and the path network gives preference to cyclists to any and all destinations, including a car free downtown central core.

My only complaints were that all the path destination markers ("road signs") were in some foreign language. (at least for me... GRIN)

Portland ahead of Copenhagen? (smirk) Apparently, "Bicycle use has quadrupled... without any increase in crashes." Amazing!

I see what they're trying to do. Encouraging travel to all sorts of different places. And all those cities have made at least some efforts towards bike transportation.

It wouldn't be a very good marketing effort for Virgin Vacations if the list were populated by Copenhagen and ten Dutch cities, would it?
It would be a more accurate list, though.

I’ve only been to Copenhagen, of those (early 90s). Amazing.

I’ve also been to a few cities/towns in China, and I have to say, the top #11 must be really bike-friendly to beat every single city/town in China.

What? No Reno, NV? Seemed to have been the most bike friendly US city I have visited.

Which cities does Virgin fly in to again? :-)

Gotta agree with you there... the stacks and stacks of bikes parked behind any large building are a sure indicator of the transit system there. Seeing cyclists in the rain was also a real treat... with the clear and color "panchos" covering both bike and cyclist.

I guess they want to include the USA, but nowhere I have been in the USA can compare to anywhere in Germany, Denmark, and Netherlands. Those are cycling countries, as opposed to just cities. It does make a difference.

And yet there are whole groups of cyclists here that just fail to realize that... and insist that we act like "cars."**

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** Paraphrased for sarcastic effect... some of you may even "get it."

Amsterdam was simply amazing. Now if only it were tropical and I could find a job there.

Japanese cities also are fairly easy to get around by bicycle, alone or in combination with public transportation. When I lived in Tokyo I would bike to the large covered bike parking areas for free at the train station, then hop a train to downtown. When I lived in a medium sized city of Miyazaki I would just bike wherever I wanted to go. There was a nice MUP on top of the dike that followed the river through town.

But that seems to be just one guy and a court with its hands tied by state law.

I wouldn't agree that Portland is less bike-friendly than Amsterdam or Copenhagen. There aren't any logistical problems involved in biking throughout the majority of the city (deep southwest and the "hundreds" are a bit iffy) while avoiding busy streets. Not as many people happen to take advantage of Portland's bike-friendliness as in Amsterdam or Copenhagen, but I suspect that this is because the cost of driving -- in terms of both time and money -- is significantly higher in Europe.

Portland doesn't need to become like Amsterdam. A low-speed street is just as good as a cycletrack. Aside from a couple of bridge crossings and maybe the extension of the Esplanade up to St. Johns, I don't see that many improvements are necessary. There are a few streets that bikes commonly use that could stand to be repaved. The outer eastside would be more bike-friendly if the side streets were actually all paved, instead of turning into mud pits whenever it rains.

Dang Minneapolis didn't make it.

I agree!! I visited there last week (from Ohio) and was extremely impressed with how friendly it was. I climbed up Geiger Grade Rd and Mt Rose and never once did I feel threatened by a motorist. I was surprised at how much room I was given on roads with virtually no shoulder. Their bike lane infrastructure is fairly impressive as well. I will be back!!!

I never see Irvine, California on any list of bicycle friendly cities and it should be. Irvine has 45 miles of bikeways which are separate roads for bicycles and 282 miles of bike lanes. The bike lanes are wide enough for 2 bikes to ride side by side and all of the roads are landscaped with lots of trees, plants and flowers.

But, I think I would like to trying cycling through Copenhagen

I'd argue that "miles" of bike lanes can be such a misleading factor. Not at all familiar with Irvine, so I'm not speaking about that, but I've seen cities that were going for the "bike friendly" look that aren't.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_dLo-16CSAx...0/Suburbia.jpg

Just because you have miles of bike lanes down every street there doesn't change the fact that it's hell.

How about a list of the Most Bicycle Un-friendly? I nominate Kansas City,MO


Anyone?

+1 on that. The whole KC Metro area is awful for bikes. (I used to live in Lenexa and work in Olathe. One of those "You can't get there from here on a bike" situations.)

Sacramento has it's issues but compared to KC it's a bike paradise.

Miami, Florida, hands down.

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Get the hell out of my thread, fellow Miamian.

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;)

-Kurt

Beat you to it, eh?

Depends who had the punch line. :thumb:

-Kurt

ahh, city rankings based on bike-friendliness, the only thing keeping Davis CA relevant (well, besides the college, but the residents hate it for some reason)