There are at least two types of biking in and around big cities. Urban bikers dodge car traffic, often with the hope that bike lanes will make travel safer. Nevertheless, city bike riders get hit and sometimes killed each year. Then there are the suburban bikers who wear suits like the pros and ride on long country roads, sometimes for hours or even days. For them, bikes represent a sort of recreation and sometimes serious competition.
Over 100 Americans have a bicycle, whether they ride it or not. Inexpensive bikes can cost less than $100. Riders often shell out $1,000 or more for serious recreational bikes. This makes the sale of bikes a relatively small but widespread industry.
For its recent 2022’s Best Biking Cities in the U.S. report, lawn services firm LawnStarter “compared the 200 biggest U.S. cities based on 24 key indicators of a cyclist-friendly lifestyle, such as access to bike lanes and bike rentals, the share of bike commuters, the presence of cycling clubs, and the number of bike races and tours.”
In detail, the methodology reviewed the number of bike lanes, biking fatalities, bike sharing, bike renting, bike theft and bike clubs, among other things. Sources included AllTrails, Bikeshare.com, Bike Index, the League of American Bicyclists, Meetup, National Center for Disaster Preparedness, National Centers for Environmental Information, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, TRIP, U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, USA Cycling, Vision Zero Network, Walk Score, World Naked Bike Ride and Yelp.
Cities were ranked on a scale of one to 100. San Francisco topped the list with a score of 72.13. Nearby San Jose ranked 15th with a score of 52.89. Cities near the Pacific Ocean and in the Northeast dominated the rankings.
These are the top 25 cities for biking:
| City | Overall Score | Access Rank | Safety Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| San Francisco, Calif. | 72.13 | 1 | 27 |
| Minneapolis, Minn. | 65.52 | 5 | 1 |
| New York, N.Y. | 64.45 | 4 | 9 |
| Portland, Ore. | 63.40 | 2 | 12 |
| Eugene, Ore. | 62.21 | 3 | 8 |
| Boston, Mass. | 61.57 | 11 | 2 |
| Denver, Colo. | 60.94 | 9 | 10 |
| Seattle, Wash. | 60.18 | 6 | 21 |
| Washington, D.C. | 59.34 | 16 | 20 |
| Chicago, Ill. | 57.10 | 33 | 3 |
| Madison, Wis. | 54.66 | 17 | 7 |
| Fort Collins, Colo. | 54.23 | 7 | 34 |
| Albuquerque, N.M. | 53.78 | 15 | 23 |
| San Diego, Calif. | 53.53 | 25 | 30 |
| San Jose, Calif. | 52.89 | 14 | 28 |
| Philadelphia, Pa. | 52.63 | 53 | 11 |
| Alexandria, Va. | 52.56 | 21 | 4 |
| Tempe, Ariz. | 52.34 | 73 | 5 |
| Los Angeles, Calif. | 52.00 | 60 | 32 |
| Sacramento, Calif. | 51.87 | 24 | 16 |
| Richmond, Va. | 51.62 | 38 | 22 |
| Orlando, Fla. | 51.14 | 18 | 14 |
| Salt Lake City, Utah | 50.66 | 12 | 113 |
| San Antonio, Texas | 50.64 | 39 | 13 |
| Houston, Texas | 50.44 | 27 | 26 |
Click here to see which are America’s 50 best cities to live in.
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