Mr. Underbridge

Where were you? Old town is a grid street layout, and that area in particular is pretty easy to bike in (only real issue is peds). Also has some fantastic MUP paths - I realize they're not your cup of tea, but they're not only usable but quite scenic as well.

Only problem I've ever had there was trying to follow construction detours to the MUP which followed roads - miss a badly placed sign and ended up on a road that turned into a limited access highway. That was fun.

As for mean people, Northern Virginia folks are a little more jaded than those from the midwest. This is probably because we have the worst traffic in the country outside of LA.

All in all, Northern Virginia is a pretty good place to ride a bike, and it does take a fair amount of planning to find good routes. But they do exist. And since the density of cyclists is higher out here, drivers expect us. I was near your area (Northern Kentucky) last week, and saw all of 6 cyclists all week. 5 were riding on the sidewalk, 3 of them the wrong way. Only one guy in the road. Not sure if that was a reflection of the overall hazard of trying to ride there or not, but I personally wouldn't want to be the first cyclist any of the locals have ever seen in the road.

Oddly enough, I also saw a cyclist whose bike was attached to four Huskies that were pulling it. I have absolutely no idea what to make of that.

PerhamBiker

My first 8 miles into work are on a shoulderless country road. Traffic is intermittant and usually at around 55 mph. They normally give me enough room, but I'm a little nervous riding into the sun, going over hilltops and around corners. Once I hit town it's one unavoidable, wheel jarring road crack after another every 20 to 30 ft. for the final mile and half to work. 25 mph through town leaves me shaking every day.

PerhamBiker

That would be Sweden St. in Caribou, Maine.

CliftonGK1

If you're around that way a lot, hit up Goldberg's Deli for lunch sometime. That place is awesome!

genec

OK, commuting in San Diego during a firestorm... now that is bad.

vrkelley

That sux...hopefully it's temporary.

LittleBigMan

Worst commuting cities? I don't have a clue.

But I've ridden a 30-mile round-trip commute, mostly by bike, sometimes by bike/bus/train/bike, in Atlanta, Georgia for over a decade.

I love it!

whatsmyname

I think I am going to confound/aggravate a lot of you by nominating NYC as one of the worst commuting towns.

OK, compared to a lot of places (detailed above), in absolute terms, it's probably one of better big cities in the US. But relative to what it could be, it's really poor. Think about it - Manhattan is almost entirely flat, and the outer boros are pretty flat too, and the city is compact. The climate is favorable to cycling (with the exception of the extreme of winter). With the exception of downtown, 90%+ of the roads are wide enough to fit a bike lane down the side. There's a strong tradition of strong city government, and the huge construction means that the city could exercise great sway over facilities at new office buildings/residential developments. Public transport is great, cheap, operates 24 hours a day, and has a single provider (more or less)

And yet...there are few cycle lanes, advanced stop lines don't exist, few on-street bike racks (and almost none by stations), new office buildings don't build storage or showers, on-street parking is incredibly cheap (which creates congestion), buses don't have bike mounts (which would encourage outer-borough multimodal transportation) and lots of other things.

Don't get me wrong, it's not like being in a highway city like Detriot or whatever, but considering the conditions that have been handed to NYC on a plate to start with, the city's done a terrible job of getting people out of cars and onto trains/bikes.

Sawtooth

When we did STP in 2006, we stayed in Bellevue and made the naive assumption that we could easily ride from Bellevue to the starting point at UW. Uhm, No! Not that I could see. Only a 3 mile bridge without any bike accomodations in site. How Bellevue commuters get into Seattle I have no clue.

Evoracer

It's disturbing that Irvine, Ca has had some bicycle related fatalities in recent months and it is one of the most bike friendly cities here locally.

fat_bike_nut

Really? Cool, thanks for the tip! I sure do pass through there a lot when I'm taking the Route 240 Metro bus.

phoebeisis

New Orleans isn't too good.The streets are heavily potholed,rutted because our soil is so soft,and it tends to swell and shrink depending on how much water is in it.
Car/pickup/SUV drivers are generally unaware of riders or worse angry that the riders are slowing them down-no help from them.
Our city has LOTS of murders!
It is hot and humid 6 months of the year-nothing good about that.
It rains a lot,and sometimes the rains are very, very heavy.Lotta thunder/lightening to spice things up.
On the bright side it is never so cold,that you "can't" ride.It hits 30 degree for several hours a couple of times a year.Snows every 10 years or so.
Charlie

CliftonGK1

The 520 bridge has a Metro stop just before either end and all the busses have bike racks on the front. If you're farther south, the I-90 bridge has a bike lane. The only other option is to take the long way (about 30 miles from Bellevue, one way) and get the 520 bike trail, connect to the Sammamish River trail, take that to the Burke-Gilman trail and head into the U district.

edtrek

FINALLY something about Beaver County, and it's ... well, accurate.

Two thoughts: check the weekend rides out of Brady's Run Park, or possibly look into Beaver Valley Velo.

cerewa

The dogs needed exercise, probably. The cyclist probably finds it easier to exercise them on a bike than on foot. Funny thing about some dogs is that they will pull a leash very hard at walking speed but barely pull at all at 7mph unless encouraged to go faster.

fat_bike_nut

Sounds like that guy was trying to do the Iditarod with a bicycle on the MUP instead of a sled in the snow

nashcommguy

This surprises me. I lived in Nashville for 4 years and commuted everyday from Music Row out West End Ave. to Davidson to Charlotte to Old Hickory Blvd. Would ride to the Downtown Y 3-4 days per week, also. It was urban for sure, but Pittsburgh was/is much, much worse. Now I live out near Santa Fe(that's pronounced 'fee' for non-locals) just off the Natchez Trace Parkway. It's cycling heaven out here. PM me if you want to get away for a day as I've got some rides laid out from 20-75 miles.

The Human Car

Baltimore may not be the worst but it is in the top ten. Our bicyclists injury rate per population is almost three times higher then NYC with far less cyclists out and about. DC has a lot more bike commuters then us due in part because of a lovely trail network.

The major reason is attitudes. I think that Baltimore has some of the best car centric plans and designs then any other major city. That translates to the problems related to congestion are not that bad here compared to other cities. And that translates to really poor attitudes among drivers. There is enough traffic here to frustrate the heck out of anyone, yet there are also enough opportunities to put the pedal to the metal so motorists have next to zero tolerance for a cyclist caused “delay.” We have reached a point where the alternate off the main road bike routes are also desirable by motorists looking for ways around congestion so all roads are now looked at as car only roads.

uprightbent

VIETNAM. A Washington Post article recently spoke of their fatality rate triple that of the US and their difficulty in dealing with head trauma. They actually have a mandatory helmet law coming in November that was shot down previously by the government and the people. The article described mayhem in the streets with a high number of drunk drivers, mopeds,and of course bicycles all fighting for the same space.

thereverendbob

You are on to something here! (Applause, applause.) I think that's THE reason for most of the aggression and road rage toward cyclists that I have witnessed or experienced during my daily commute from Virginia, through Washington DC, and out the other side into Maryland. People are fat, in debt, don't like their wives, and live in quiet desperation. And then you come along, making better time through traffic & getting in or maintaining fitness on a . . . bicycle?

I love it!

See ya,
Bob

zephyr

Irvine is not just one of the most bicycle friendly cities in Orange County, it's more bicycle friendly than almost any other place I know of in the USA. Bike lanes along nearly every major through street, MUPS that provide some non-stop cross town shortcut routes, restrictions against on street parking along curbs. I have not heard about the recent bicycle fatalities in Irvine. I'll have to find out what the cause was of these. Many times, I see bike riders around here do dumb things, like try to blow across 6 lanes of high speed cross traffic after a traffic light has turned yellow. I see cars do plenty of dumb things too, but Irvine is one of the last places I would put on a "worst bike commute cities list".

gpsblake

Okay, I'll pipe up. While SC roads are the worst possible for bicycling and we've had some high profile deaths on the highways, the drivers here in rural SC generally are the most polite you'll see anywhere. Rarely do I have a problem with the drivers, usually it's loose dogs.

I'll take SC over the DC/Baltimore suburbs and their over-rushed soccer mom's in super large SUV's pulling out of parking lots anyday.

ryuuchiba

Honolulu, HI

Yea it maybe be sunny & warm all year round but the commuting situation is bad.

I commute a regular 8km roundtrip from my apt to school daily and then theres all the errands I have to do.

There are pot holes everywhere making the ride very bumpy, though that's not the worst. It's more to the fact how there are very few bike lanes and those that exist are often blocked by motorists but rather people on scooters like to take the bike lane to get by cars. Motorists are from 2 sides of the spectrum. There are some that are fine and dont mind that they get stuck behind me, but often they like to honk cause "I'm in their way." I've had 2 bad incidents with motorists, the first was while I was riding some ******bags in a car sprays me with some liquid (I shall believe to be water) for no reason as I was in the bike lane and not in their way. The second was kinda scary though as the motorists first drove up next to me yelling "Get on the $)%# sidewalk!!," to which I replied that I was legally allowed to be on the damn street (true I could have included as vulgar word in there though I can't remember and I was having a bad day) but he then after giving me the stink eye pulled over at the gas station pissed and started to get out of his car almost to confront me. I kept going without lookin back as I didn't want to make it worse as I didn't know what may happen with a pissed driver.

The city is finally getting off their ass to build up the bike transport system here but its only limited with a 370k planning budget and a 1mil budget for '09 to implement this plan (that has been on the books since prolly 1994 with the current plan since 1999, pretty bad huh). I'm unsure as to how well this will improve biking though for commuting purposes here though.

tmmcta

I live in Suwanee, GA and have a decent commute with half of the 6.5 miles on paved trail. My complaint about Atlanta commuting are the hills. I can't seem to get into any rythm as I am always either chugging uphill or screaming downhill.

genec

What is really strange about that is when I spent some time there I was really impressed by the huge loads that were moved about by bicycle... Not up on the slopes and steep hills, but all around the waterfront and out to the floating boat area. (forgot the name). Bike were everywhere. This was long before the hand off back to China... so things may have changed.