Dive Brief:
- The best large U.S. city for bike riders is Minneapolis, followed by Seattle and San Francisco, according to PeopleForBikes’ 2024 city ratings, released June 21.
- The report also singled out Austin, Texas; Cambridge, Massachusetts; and Salt Lake City as becoming more bike-friendly since 2020, based on the bicycle advocacy organization PeopleForBikes’ scoring methodology.
- High-scoring cities do well in fostering safe speed limits, protected bike lanes, space for biking and walking, intersection safety, connections among bike paths and trusted data use.
Dive Insight:
Traffic fatalities involving cyclists increased 4% from 2022 to 2023, according to early estimates from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. More than 1,100 cyclists died each of those years in traffic crashes. PeopleForBikes said in a press release that its data can help city leaders, decision makers and bicycling advocates identify best practices for improving local bikeability.
In 2019, just 33 U.S. cities scored 50 or higher on PeopleForBikes’ ratings. In the latest report, 183 U.S. cities exceeded that threshold.
Among the most-improved cities, Austin passed bond measures in 2016, 2018 and 2020 to provide funds for bike paths, urban trails, sidewalks and Vision Zero safety projects.
Cambridge enacted its Cycling Safety Ordinance in 2019, which PeopleForBikes describes as one of the strongest Complete Streets ordinances in the U.S. Cambridge also installed bollards and flexible posts to separate bike infrastructure in a less costly and quicker manner.
Salt Lake City lowered its local speed limits from 25 mph to 20 mph, established the 9 Line Trail along a former railroad corridor and opened the 9 Line Bike Park on June 21 with features allowing bikers to practice jumps.
