Most bike friendly cities in Raleigh-Durham NC metro?

[Slow2FIRE]

Moving to Raleigh-Durham NC metro soon.

I am hoping for some personal, subjective responses on what people feel are the better cities to live in based on bicycle friendliness (i.e. bike paths completely away from roads, shared bike lanes, designated bike lanes on the shoulder, driver behavior towards bicyclists, etc).

We won't be commuting to work, but we would like to be able to go on bike rides for fun or to pick up small items from grocery stores, go to the movies, stop by a drug store, etc.

Any suggestions?

We currently are interested in Cary and Apex.  We do not want to live in any of the outlaying rural communities.  Looking at rental rates for newish townhouses in Cary and Apex we would be spending less than 8% of our gross monthly income for a 3 bdrm/2 bath 1850sq ft townhouse built in the last 5 years and have zero need or desire to live in a small town of 5000 people with $500 rents.

I'll also check on City-Data forums to see what feedback they offer.

[Seradoc]

You may want to consider the following resource:

http://bikeraleigh.org/


I would contribute more if I could, but my personal knowledge of the bike conditions in Cary / Apex regions is lacking.

[Sanger]

I've read on the bike programs they have setup in that area, and one in particular charges by the half hour, but you can get away with having a bike all day for $8, if you simply check your bike back into a bike station every 30 minutes.

https://www.charlottefive.com/use-charlottes-b-cycle-bike-share-not-get-charged-crapload/

[sherr]

Oh hey, welcome to the area! I live in Cary and I think it's probably the most bicycle-friendly city in the area. I havn't biked much in Apex so I can't say much one way or the other on that. A good percentage of the roads in Cary have wider right-hand lanes and a lot are explicitly marked with "sharrows". Cary also has an extensive network of greenways. My recommendation would be to live within reach of the Black Creek Greenway which can get you from Umstead Park on one side of Cary all the way through to Bond Park on the other. From Umstead you can also connect through to the Raleigh Greenways, and Bond Park connects (or will) down to Apex and (eventually, right now some country-road cycling is required) over to the American Tobacco Trail and up to Chapel Hill / Durham. If off-roading is more your thing then this website may also be useful.

Regardless, welcome, I think this is a great place to live and hope you like it!

[rothwem]

Cary has great greenways, but riding on the road is terrifying.  The roads are wide and people drive like they’re back home in New Jersey. Cary is pretty family friendly with good schools and lots of parks, activities, etc.

ITB Raleigh is pretty bikeable too, but it is really pricey. Really really pricey.  I currently live here, but I just happened to buy in at the right time. I couldn’t afford to live here now if I hadn’t bought when I did.

The most bikeable is probably Carrboro, but it’s a small town, and very crunchy. You will run into the same people all the time, which you may or may not like. You’re also close to UNC, I’m not sure how irritating college kids are to you.

[inline five]

Assuming $1500/month rent and 8% you're around $225k income at least.

Why throw money away on rent? That is plenty to afford a house in a nice area in those towns. Do you plan on staying long term or is this a short term gig?

The area has a lot going for it as far as economic growth goes. Government (capital of the state), technology (RTP), medical, higher education (six colleges including several name brand schools such as Duke, NC State, UNC). That's why we bought here. It's also fairly transient which means rents are higher than typical, making it less expensive to buy.

[aneel]

Another vote for the greenways in Cary, but don't fool yourself I to thinking you can be bike dependent around here. It's just too sprawling :-/

I'm in Apex and the Cary greenways actually connect over here which I see as a major benefit! Welcome to RDU!

[Slow2FIRE]

Assuming $1500/month rent and 8% you're around $225k income at least.

Why throw money away on rent? That is plenty to afford a house in a nice area in those towns. Do you plan on staying long term or is this a short term gig?

The area has a lot going for it as far as economic growth goes. Government (capital of the state), technology (RTP), medical, higher education (six colleges including several name brand schools such as Duke, NC State, UNC). That's why we bought here. It's also fairly transient which means rents are higher than typical, making it less expensive to buy.

We'll only be there for 3 years, so unless we see a really sweet deal on a house that we can turn into a profitable rental it doesn't make fiscal sense for us to purchase. 

[Slow2FIRE]

Another vote for the greenways in Cary, but don't fool yourself I to thinking you can be bike dependent around here. It's just too sprawling :-/

I'm in Apex and the Cary greenways actually connect over here which I see as a major benefit! Welcome to RDU!

Good to know.

Our primary vehicle is a Prius.  We just want the flexibility to be able to bike as much as possible.

[asauer]

For your purposes, Cary biking is better than apex.  It has a more extensive, connected system of greenways that are bike friendly.  Apex is still kind of figuring it out.  Additionally the town is crisscrossed by some really major traffic- we won’t bike many places b/c of how dangerous crossing the major roads is.  We’ve lived in the area for over 20 years.  Hope this helps.