Hey, Vandy guy. I used to live @ 17th/Edgehill and would ride out to Old Hickory/Charlotte every day via West End and Davidson. Also, up to Harris-Teeter on Blair for groceries. It was always nuts trying to cross that intersection where 21st/Division/Broadway all come together by the Wendy's.:p

Anyway, now I live .5 mi from the Natchez Trace Parkway @ mp 423. I've got some courses laid out from 20-75 miles w/moderate hills. PM me if you want to come out for a ride some time. I've got a bike buddy in Lavergne, too. He's always down for a mash. :)

I hella bike Oakland! East Bay has many bicyclists and the drivers seem to be used to our antics by now. The BART is a fairly bike-friendly, so we can get from place to place and over to the City. I used to live in Chicago which is also a very bike-friendly city. Funny how the good places to live for jobs, culture etc. are also good places to cycle... :-)

Groningen, Netherlands.
Since the 70's they have been investing in bicycling infrastructure. I lived there in 1992-1993. A few examples:
1. the downtown area is divided in 4 quadrants. To move from one quadrant to another by car you have to leave downtown and take the ring-highway. This had made the downtown area low traffic (but not low activity). By bike, you can freely move from one quadrant to another.
2. Intersections with traffic lights have special painted areas where bicycles can move in front of the cars. They have their own signal that turns green about 5 seconds before the cars get a green light, so bicycles can navigate safely thru the intersection.

And it does work. 47% of short trips (up to 5 miles) is made by bike in the city of Groningen. That is incredible, even by Dutch standards. In 1993 it was crowned the world's(!) most bike friendly city by Bicycle magazine. Read a review of the city policy here: http://www.context.org/ICLIB/IC39/TruePP.htm

Duppie
(Nowhere did I see this thread limited to US cities. If so, my vote would go to Chicago, my adopted hometown since the mid-nineties)

Southern Oregon!

http://www.bearcreekgreenway.com/

We actually have a bike path that travels the entire distance of the Rogue Valley (southern Oregon).

I'm moving South to Talent this fall and will be using this to make the 22 mile round commute at least a few times a week depending on how much it kicks my butt. I will need a new bike ;D

the two cities I ride in most are Boston and NYC.

Boston has limited bike infrastructure, very aggressive drivers, potholed narrow streets, constant construction, tons of on street parking and double parking. It's few MUP's are poorly maintained but part of a gorgeous urban park system designed by Frederick Law Olmstead that make the scenery worth the ride in many cases. But I ride the streets and the Boston- Watertown MUP daily and love it.

NYC used to be a nightmare of mean streets and high speed avenues and in some ways it still is. But the improvements in infrastructure, in particular the west side greenway and the adding of bike lanes has moved it into the lead of the 2 towns for me. I still can't believe what a difference a few ribbons of asphalt and some stripes on the street made in that town. That and the fact that it just hit it's peak capacity of private autos and trucks and it's citizens are getting sick of all the cars. So the catering to autocentricity that still exists in Boston is diminishing in Manhattan. The city has also cut back on the number of hours that automobiles can drive in Central Park and it can be a real oasis- just watch for all the peds, bikes, carriages and joggers.

I think Philly is pretty good. My commute is fantastic--1 mi on low-traffic streets, 8 mi on MUP, then 1.5 mi on some of the less busy city streets. There aren't throngs of commuters on the MUP, but there are several, and almost everyone expects and deals with bike traffic (i.e. only the occasional long leash or people obliviously strolling side by side to take up the whole path).

But I think it depends a lot where you are. My path is there because of the park along the river, so there aren't many other such paths. And bike lanes tend to be intermittent and often don't connect to each other. The commuters at my work are all from Mt. Airy and West Philly.

Cars do seem to at least know that there are things called bikes that sometimes use the roads.

Anchorage: Best I've lived in so far (Suburban Maryland, Fargo, Minneapolis, Virginia Beach, Erie, Kansas City, Fort Worth), and actually pretty good if they could spend more time dealing with snow.

Fort Worth: Very bad.

You actually have a very nice bike lane that travels north and south across the whole state... on 1. It is quite beautiful and well signed.

Orange County is a better bike commute area than most people would imagine for southern california. Terrain in north county is generally flat, south county is varied with some rolling hills. Great to ride through the beach cities along Pacific Coast Highway. Most major through streets in my area have a wide marked bike lane on the shoulder. Many of these through streets also prohibit curbside parking, which helps avoid doors flying open while pedaling along. I don't use MUPs very often, but there's plenty of those around too, and some of them are quite useful cross town routes for bike commuters because they have underpasses and tunnels to avoid crossing traffic intersections, that allow you to ride through some cities without traffic lights to stop at. Irvine, CA is one place with MUPS like this.

Many cities around here have traffic light push buttons right next to the curb for cyclists who are stopped at a signal in the bike lane. Those things are great for early morning commutes before the school bound car traffic picks up. One other thing usually working in a bike commuter's favor is weather. Rarely under 40F on winter mornings, rarely above low 90s F on late summer afternoons while pedaling home. Very few heavy rainstorm days per year that would keep me off the bike for safety reasons, probably less than 10 days. One other good thing, there's so many thousands of cyclists around that it is quite rare for motorists to harass people on a bicycle, blast the horn, yell crap when passing by or tossing junk out the window at you. Bicyclists are generally OK around here as long as you don't do something like try to head over to a left turn lane across three lanes of high speed traffic. I get by very car light here, sometimes go weeks using bike or pedestrian transportation only. Oh yeah, there's a county wide bus line, it's cheap although not real fast, and all the buses have front load bike racks. Not a bad way to combine bike and bus to get to certain places.

Boulder!

It's small as cities go, but biking in and around it is wonderful.

I can't believe no one has mentioned Portland yet.

Portland, definitely. Lots of bike lanes, great MUPs (except for one notoriously bad one), plenty of bike parking, bike racks on all the transit buses and the light rail, great network signage - the list goes on and on.

It's the main reason I started cycling again. (though not why I moved here)

The deal breaker for me would be the rain. When I lived in SE Washington State I delivered blood there three times a week for the red cross. It was always raining. I suppose one could overcome that with the proper gear. That and the infrastructure is supposed to be wonderful.

I like Denver. The city of Denver has nice cycling routes and plenty of MUPs. However, the major drawbacks are pretty much every suburb of Denver. Many do have plenty of MUPs but I would rather have ride able streets with halfway intelligent drivers not intent on making you a pancake instead of paths everywhere.

Yeah, rain is a drawback, especially in the winter months, when it's a cold, soaking rain. It's the main reason why I haven't put on much mileage the last couple of weeks. Tomorrow I have to ride in the rain if we have it, because I'm helping out on a bike move.

The infrastructure is fantastic - maybe there are other cities that have a lot of bike infrastructure, but in Portland it seems like we have a little bit of everything. I love it.

And on the last Friday of every month, a bike group called Shift serves breakfast to all the bike commuters on two of the bridges that link downtown to the eastside. Free coffee and donuts once a month - how do you beat that? ;)

disclaimer: I sort of work with the guys who do Breakfast on the Bridges, so yeah, I'm biased. :D

Madison's a great place to commute. There's an extensive network of bike paths along with fairly wide bike lanes. It's so easy to get around by bike that I park my car Sunday night and don't have to use it again until I leave town or do massive grocery shopping.

I've also lived in Houston, and I have to agree with the op that it's hit and miss. The trails and lanes that do exist in Houston are decent, but the amount of the city you can cover by using them is limited. The bayou trails, for example, are nice for an afternoon ride, especially if you don't mind looping it, but they don't really take you anywhere. . .Plus, there's a militantly car-centric attitude that pervades Houston's roads, which makes for some pretty hair-raising commutes. It's so darn hot down there that drivers assume that you would be driving something with a/c if you could afford to, and so cyclist = poor + worthy of derision, even if you're rolling on a couple Gs worth of bike. The cat calls and taunts are mostly hilarious, even though it's pretty intimidating to realize that a crazy guy in a pickup is on your tail.

Another commuter from Calgary here, with a slightly different experience. My 20 mile rt commute is almost entirely on the bike path, which parallels the pedestrian path along the Bow river for long stretches to the west of the city centre. There are a couple of choke points where the paths come together under the bridges but it is basically a bike freeway during peak hours. The posters from California might not be impressed, but the city clears the snow in the winter.;)

I'll chime in with what Buzzman has posted and say that bike commuting in Boston prevails purely by dint of the gorgeous scenery and the compact size of the city, and certainly not because of the poor infrastructure, aggressive drivers or clueless pedestrians. If anything, Boston commuters deserve some credit because they ride on despite all of those factors.

In the four or so times I've ridden my bike through New York, it's been surprisingly fun, because even though the traffic seems to flow faster than it does in Boston, the drivers all seem to be on the same page. They're all rude, but they're rude in the same, predictable way, so once you get that, it's easy to negotiate with them. By comparison, dealing with Boston traffic is like negotiating with a kid suffering Tourettes.

Though, really, my favorite city to ride through recently has been Paris. Combination of generous, distinct bike lanes and a prevalent bike sharing program puts that city in the win for me.

Having grown up in a snowy winter climate, I'm impressed. I'm also impressed to read that separate paths exist for bikes and peds. Good job, Calgary. :beer:

When I lived in Salt Lake...I thought it was the BEST.

Bike lanes, and I believe Mayor Anderson mandated that any new road projects must also include bike lanes. Bicycles everywhere.

The Salt Lake City Century has all of the procedes go to cycle advocacy and cycling infrastructure.

Even outside of the city, I seldom had issues with the drivers. Maybe they're on the lookout to not hit Mormon missionaries? I don't know, but whatever the reason it worked out for me.

I'm not a big fan of Anchorage, AK as a bike commuting place myself. A lot of the roads are like Northern Lights Blvd, on which I did many a commute among motorists who like to go 55mph (in a 40mph zone) and pass too closely.

regarding the "no Canadians yet?" comment... I found Montreal to be pretty good. Drivers in center city, at least, usually treat bicycles like any other traffic, to be passed with several feet of space at a minimum. Lots of roads where actual traffic speeds are 30mph or less.

Philadelphia, where I now live, is also a good bike-commuting location, with many light-traffic, low-speed streets to take you to almost any destination, plus bike lanes along some of the popular cycling routes. (the bike lanes are mostly painted dangerously close to the parked-car door zone though! big thumbs-down for that; I don't want my fellow cyclists getting doored.)

My current commute takes me through the Philly suburbs which are really not so bicycle friendly, although it could be worse.

I was in Canberra (Australia's Capital City) for a week a month ago. I rode every morning during peak hour ... what a fabulous place to commute. Well planned cycleways all over the city and out into the suburbs ... dedicated paths that take pretty much anywhere you want to go ... very rarely did I have to ride on the road. Pedestrians that smile and step off the shared path to let you pass, drivers that actually brake for you and wave you on at intersections ... and tons of really hot female cyclists to keep pace with <<grins>>.

Such a contrast to my home city (Sydney) where you are often treated as if you have a some kind of death wish for daring to share the road/path with other traffic ... not all drivers are rude, however, there is certainly a fair percentage of drivers who will cut you off - move over to try to "scare" you or just hurl abuse and beep their horn ... as well as pedestrians who never make room on shared paths and abuse you for coming too close or for even being on the path at all (dont know what they think "shared pathway" means)

Funnily enough, I think I prefer to commute in Sydney ... I think its a little too easy in Canberra and I'd get bored within a month . At home there's a kind of solidarity when you pass another cyclist. When Im cycling along in traffic I often have that rebellious feeling of doing something just a little scarey and dangerous. Home is certainly tougher and less cycle friendly ... but I kinda like the edgy feeling I get each time I get on my bike.

So, give me a tough commute any day.

I've commuted in the Philadelphia suburbs, not far from you and "freemti", and I agree with you about the local roads. I have a greater problems with other cyclists in Phoenixville than motorists anywhere in the Philadelphia area - at least the cars don't ride the wrong way.

I spent a week in Cleveland, staying in a downtown hotel and renting a bike for the duration. I rode from my hotel all over the downtown each morning and afternoon. I loved the flatness of the city, and traffic wasn't bad at all.

Having lived in Orange County for 23 years, I agree with everything you've said. I was surprised that I didn't get harassed very much when I rode there (only about 4 times in 2 years), considering that most of the motorists in the areas I rode in were not used to seeing bicycles in the roadway.

I never bothered taking the buses because I found that I could get to my destinations just as fast, if not faster than them, by bicycling. The terrain and the weather make Orange County a perfect place to ride a bike, assuming that you're not doing it on one of the 45 MPH speed limit arterial streets with zero shoulder :D

MUPs do not a great commute make. Put me down as another fan of Boston.

A year ago I would not have known to put down Amherst NY (Buffalo suburb), but now that I am commuting, and generally trying to avoid using the car as much as possible I have been amazed at how many place I can get to without much effort.

There is still lots of room for improvement, but we have many descent major roads that have wide shoulders so that you can ride comfortably at your own speed and not need to worry about the motor vehicle traffic as they can travel without being disturbed by my presence either. I have no problem with taking a lane, but if everyone has their own space and everyone can move freely, then everyone wins. There are plenty of sucky area that are still hard to get to, but there is a regional planning board that has been piecing together the various bike routes that almost appeared to go from no-where to no-where. Now that these sections are getting connected you can actually go a lot of places. There are also some nice bike paths (luckily the are still called BIKE paths... there are mostly cyclists and runners). There is one path that starts right north of my home that now takes me almost 20 miles to down town Bufflalo along the Erie Canal and Niagara River. If I head the other direction I can follow the Erie Canal all the way to Palmyra NY (65 Miles). At work (about 5 Miles away) near SUNY at Buffalo Univeristy I can Pick up an other part of the Bike path system and take that over to two of our satellite offices. That path connects up the the one near my house. There are still a few critical links missing that cut into the City, but they are slated to be worked on starting 2008 through 1010. At first it sounded far away and the I realized that even 2010 is only 2 years away. Winter weather can be snowy and cold here... time will tell how well I can continue to ride into the Fall and Winter. If the snow banks become to large I may not be able to ride safely even if the rest of the roads are dry.

Happy riding,
André

I have to say Atlanta Georgia, the home of Tour de Georgia. The best because no one actually commutes with bicycle, everyone just drives. Eventhough roads are un-friendly to bicyclists, most of the time drivers just get stucked in traffic and would have less chance of having run in with me.



H23NC,