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Top Places for City Biking: Who’s Really Doing Their Part

April 23rd, 2010 Posted in Green Living & News

With global warming and climate change on people’s minds, many are looking for ways to reduce their carbon footprint. One great way to do this is rely more on bicycles for transportation.

In urban areas, city biking is a trendy and green way to get around without relying on crowded public transportation or paying a ridiculous amount for fuel.

At the beginning of this month, a report was released telling city residents and officials which cities are the best for biking.

Let’s take a look at the results and find out why they made the list and if they really deserve it.

• Top Places for City Biking According to Bicycling Magazine
• Conclusions from Alliance 2010 Benchmarking Report
• Spotlight on Seattle

Top Places for City Biking According to Bicycling Magazine

The magazine recently printed a list of the top 50 places for city biking. These bike-friendly cities had to have a population of 100,000 or more and the publication tried to create a list with geographic diversity.

You can see the entire Top 50 Bike-Friendly Cities list on the magazine’s website, but here are the top 10:

1. Minneapolis
2. Portland, OR
3. Boulder, CO
4. Seattle
5. Eugene, OR
6. San Francisco
7. Madison, WI
8. New York City
9. Tucson, AZ
10. Chicago

How to get on the list
To be considered, Bicycling Magazine and the Bicycling and Walking in the United States 2010 Benchmarking Report (the main reference for the magazine’s list) looked for:

• segregated bike lanes
• municipal bike racks
• bike boulevards
• smart, savvy bike shops
• a vibrant and diverse bike culture

These and other criteria points combined produced a well-researched list of great places for city biking.

Conclusions from Alliance 2010 Benchmarking Report

Recently, the Alliance for Biking and Walking released its Bicycling and Walking in the United States 2010 Benchmarking Report. The alliance calls the report an “essential resource and tool for government officials, advocates, and those working to promote bicycling and walking.”

The full report is over 100 pages, but here are a few of the main conclusions:

• Where bicycling and walking levels are higher, obesity, high blood pressure and diabetes levels are lower
• Higher levels of bicycling and walking go hand in hand with increased bicycle and pedestrian safety
• Cities with more bicycling and walking also show higher overall levels of physical activity

The report goes into more detail, but clearly these top city biking hometowns must have strong support from city officials. Right?

Spotlight on Seattle

Although this report sheds a positive light on these cities, Jonathan Hiskes of grist.org did some digging and found Seattle comes up short on criteria.

Seattle received the #4 spot because of the city’s 10-year and $240 million bike master plan. The plan also intends to triple the number of city biking journeys and add 450 miles of bike paths.

BUT…this plan is currently underfunded by nearly $165 million and Hiskes writes, “Seattle is once again praised based on its promises, not its actions.” The area between what politicians promise and what they actually do to increase sustainability in their cities is often called the “sustainability gap.”

So while it’s great that many cities are supporting city biking and even solar powered transportation, citizens must keep an eye on their leaders’ promises. They’re only great when they bring results.

Wondering what you can do right now? Pull out your Schwinn and hit the streets for a day of city biking. Springtime in the city is beautiful, don’t miss out by sitting in your car.