Bike Commuting -- How Does Your City/Town Rate?

[dude]

http://bikeleague.org/sites/default/files/ACS_report_2014_forweb_edit.pdf

Happy to report that my town ranks #5 in the nation for Top 25 Cities With Highest Share of Bicyclists, and #1 for the East region!

Incidentally, MMM's town makes the list for towns with population of 65,000-100,000 (p. 31).

[Mr. FI]

My city is #39 on the 100,000-200,000 list. My state is #2 in Mode Share.

As a person who just started commute riding earlier this year, I can tell my city is pretty committed to improving on making this a place where bike commuting is easier and encouraged.

[Timmmy]

Proud to see Detroit coming up on this list at all.

#4 in fastest growth with 438% growth. 

I guess that's easy to do when you had practically zero bike commuters to begin with. 

[GuitarStv]

I'd love to see an analysis done for Canadian cities.  Over the last few years our mayor has been involved in the removal of bike lanes from our streets.  :P

[Pooperman]

Where I work, you don't bike, you take public transport... and it's the highest % of any place in the US (New York City). The suburb I commute from sucks for bikes, but I'm walkable to commuter rail so it's a non-issue.

[kendallf]

Jacksonville is usually in the running for worst bicycle friendly city in the nation.  I note we are actually listed on one of the charts with a huge negative "growth rate" of cycling.. 

Having said that, there are actually a lot of avid cyclists here, and an active racing and training ride scene.  What we lack are infrastructure and resources aimed at commuting or utilitarian cycling, especially downtown.  Zero bike lanes, multiple bridges across the river that specifically prohibit riding, etc.  We have a Bicycling/Pedestrian Advisory Committee that is active but not well funded. 

[AgileTurtle]

Proud to see Detroit coming up on this list at all.

#4 in fastest growth with 438% growth. 

I guess that's easy to do when you had practically zero bike commuters to begin with.

On the internet everyone in Detroit bikes. In real life Detroit I have never seen that much biking. I guess it is getting better though.  When I lived in California for a while, one of the first things i thought was "Wow everyone rides bikes here"

[so.mpls]

Minneapolis is #4 overall in % of bike commuters and far and away #1 in the midwest.  The city has made a pretty strong effort in recent years to become more accessible to bicyclists, and I'm glad that it seems to be paying off.

It would be great to get up to ~5%, which I think is possible in the next 5-10 years.  Of course the weather from November - April is prohibitive for most people, so that will always be a challenge, but for the rest of the year this is a great place for biking.

[lauren_knows]

DC ranks pretty high, but I live/work in the NoVA suburbs of DC, and it's not THAT great. There are a couple of rail trails along the major highway corridors, but not much connecting them all.  Some of the major roads I've biked along have ill-maintained "trails" or bad sidewalks.  There are some fairly nice off-road trails in the woods in NoVA, but that sort of slows down the commute.

[wing117]

Charlotte is Rank 60 out of the Top 70 largest cities. 0.3% on bicycles! Argh. And growth is modest at best at 78.1% (0.2% in 1990 and 0.3% 2013). Supposedly I'm one of 1,090 commuters out of almost 800,000 people.

Well I'm sad for my city now. Thanks guys. ;)

[domustachesgrowinhouston]

I live in Houston (doubled on the list from .4 to .8).  Not downtown (I often wonder how cycling goes there) but towards the edge of town.  It's not very commuter friendly here, but it seems like there are more bicyclists showing up at my park these days.  It looks like they make some pretty nice bicycle racks for Lincoln Navigators.

[Terrestrial]

My city (Tucson) is in the top 10 and I can vouch for it...great bike accommodations here with dedicated bike paths/lanes almost everywhere and a high degree of driver comfort (not being a-holes) toward bikes.

[skunkfunk]

#41. We have plenty of cyclists really, just far more douchebags yelling at us to get on the sidewalk.

[Beric01]

San Jose - high total number of cyclists due to population, but low as a percentage. It's California - people love their cars. Makes me wonder how rare I am for not owning a car at all (not including those who can't afford to own one).

[sol]

According to that document my city has fewer than 600 bicycle commuters.  I must know half of them.

[darkadams00]

My little 'burb didn't make the list--even with almost 100 miles of greenways, trails, and bike lanes! Truthfully, I mostly see people in lycra on road bikes riding in places unlikely to be commute routes at times unlikely to be commute times, so I assume the vast majority of our cyclists are recreational only. And we do have a lot of them. But the only apparent commuters I see, i.e. on common commute routes or during commute times, are folks who live in the cheap rent district and possibly can't afford a car--the same people I mostly ride the bus with when I ride public transit. Median+ income in my town means commuting in a shiny car. And the town council just voted down a suggestion to create more parking, cut out a lane, and enhance walking/biking options downtown--I'm not sure which is cause and which is effect between the town's behavior and the council's ruling.

[tofuchampion]

Wilmington is 19/20 for the south region, and also 19th for cities with a population of 100K-200K.  We've done a lot in the past few years to make it easier - adding bike lanes, expanding the cross-city trail system, etc.  It's probably the most bike-friendly city I've ever lived in, although after seeing the report, I really want to check out Davis, CA.

[sol]

after seeing the report, I really want to check out Davis, CA.

Davis is an anomaly.  Totally flat, smooth pavement everywhere, ideal biking weather year round, and entirely a college town so most of those commuters are students.  All of the housing is within just a few miles of the campus.  In an environment like that, you'd be stupid to do anything except bike.  Or walk.

[frompa]

Hey Dude, thanks for posting this list.  My wee city is in the mid range for its size.  I do see other cyclists on a routine basis, but still when I show up somewhere with any evidence of my mode of transportation (i.e., bike helmet, bag), people say "Wow, you biked here?" like it's some kind of fucking miracle.  Okay, sometimes I like to screw around and bike in my most scary big heels and a short skirt, but yesterday when this happened, I was wearing perfectly normal jeans, tshirt and flat shoes, and the sun was shining on a nice Fall day, so what's the big deal???? (Whew, didn't know I had that rant in me!)

[Stellar]

I'm also in Houston.  I see the occasional rider... I actually almost hit one the other day (stop signs are there for a reason!).  :) 

[Gimesalot]

I am happy to see that New Orleans did so well!

[Shortbus]

Surprised to see my home town Tampa in there. It would be absolutely terrifying to ride on anything but a dedicated bike path up there. I used to ride around our neighborhood figuring that was at least somewhat safe. Got hit once (not a bad one) and very nearly had a nasty one when someone passed to make a right turn, both times in the neighborhood.

Glad we live somewhere much more bike friendly now, we didn't buy gas at all last month.

[aspiringnomad]

#2 amongst large cities and trending towards #1. Look out, Portland.

[Vilgan]

Seattle seems to be around #6 on most of the relevant lists including % of bike commuters (3.5%). It definitely seems to be growing in popularity here and I know my office building is adding bike parking as part of a 6 month renovation. There's also a Bike Master Plan to continue to improve things, although funding has not always been ideal.

I was really impressed when I visited Minneapolis, they make it super easy to ride a bike there.