15 Of The Most Bike-Friendly Cities in America

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More and more people are interested in biking because it is good for their health and the environment. It’s also less expensive than using a car for everything. Some cities have good infrastructure for biking, while others make it very difficult to travel by bike.

The top bike-friendly cities in the U.S.  have bike shops and bike racks available and often have many biking trails. They also have a low number of bikers involved in fatal accidents and rank highly on a bike-ability scale that considers many factors. The national average bike-ability score is 56, and this score is another factor in the best cities for biking.

Minneapolis, MN

Minneapolis downtown skyline in Minnesota, USA at sunset
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This city ties for one of the highest bike-ability scores of any U.S. city with 83. The city has several bike shops and has a high percentage of people who are passionate about riding bikes.

Portland, OR

Portland, Oregon, USA skyline at dusk with Mt. Hood in the distance.
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Portland ties with Minneapolis with a bike-ability score of 83. The city makes a lot of effort to make sure it’s as easy as possible to bike in the city. About 1.1% of all commuters there get to work on a bike.

San Francisco, CA

San francisco Hyde Street Cable Car Tram of the Powell-Hyde in California USA
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Sure, parts of San Francisco can be hilly and steep, but the weather is often perfect for biking. The city also has a lot of bike shops and an extremely low rate of bikers who get involved in fatal accidents. Its bike-ability score is 72.

Boston, MA

Cambridge Kendall Square skyline and Longfellow Bridge aerial view, Boston, Massachusetts MA, USA. The bridge connects Cambridge and Boston over Charles River is a steel rib arch bridge built in 1906.
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With a score of 69, Boston is far above the national average for bike-ability. The city doesn’t have as many bike shops as some cities, but it has the absolute lowest score for the number of bicyclists who are in fatal accidents.

Washington D.C.

The Jefferson Memorial during the Cherry Blossom Festival. Washington, D.C. in USA
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It has a high number of bike-share docking stations and the highest bike-ability score of 92. The city is well-planned, and it has a high number of people who are passionate about biking.

Salt Lake City, UT

Salt Lake City, Utah, USA downtown city skyline at dusk.
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Salt Lake City has a large number of bike trails, and it has a higher per-capita number of bike shops. It has a slightly higher percentage of bicyclists who are in fatal accidents, but it has a high number of commuters who travel by bike. Its bike-ability score is 74.

San Jose, CA

Scenery of the flower bed in the street; San Jose, California
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The city has a smaller number of wet days each year and a high number of people who commute via bike. It also has a high rate of passion for biking among the population that drives the bike-ability and has a score of 62.

Denver, CO

Denver Colorado downtown with City Park
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Denver may not have the best biking weather all year long, but it does have a bike-ability score of 72. It has a lot of bike trails and plenty of bike shops. About 1% of its commuters go to work by bicycle.

Seattle, WA

Seattle, Washington, USA downtown skyline.
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It might rain a lot, but the passion for biking is high in Seattle. The rain doesn’t keep people from buying and renting bikes from the many shops available in the city. It has a bikeability score of 71.

Providence, RI

Aerial panorama of Providence skyline and Rhode Island capitol building at dusk. Providence is the capital city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. Founded in 1636 is one of the oldest cities in USA.
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The people of Providence love their bikes, and they have a large number of biking trails. With a bike-ability score of 61 and a very low level of fatal bike accidents, Providence is a great place to go out for a ride.

Hartford, CT

Hartford, Connecticut.
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Hartford has a bike-ability score of 54 and has a lot of great biking trails. Though it lacks some bike shops, it has a good safety record for bicyclists and does have places to rent bikes.

Milwaukee, WI

Aerial Drone Milwaukee Marina Wisconsin.
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Sure, it gets pretty cold in Milwaukee, but many people in the city are passionate about riding. Its bikeability score of 58 is above the national average. The city has a high number of bike trails just waiting for bikers.

Raleigh, NC

Aerial Photography From Raleigh & Cary NC
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Raleigh has a fairly low bike-ability score of 39, placing it below the national average. However, it’s full of biking trails, and it has a good safety record for cyclists. It also has a high number of bike-share docking stations.

Sacramento, CA

Historic buildings line the street in Old Town Sacramento located near the waterfront of the city of Sacramento, California.
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Its bike-ability score is 67, and it has an average number of biking trails and bike shops. It has great weather for biking with a low number of rainy days. It also scores well on the passion its citizens have for biking.

New York, NY

NEW YORK CITY - DEC 01 Times Square ,is a busy tourist intersection of neon art and commerce and is an iconic street of New York City and America, December 01th, 2013 in Manhattan, New York City.
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The city can feel like it was built for bikes, and plenty of people take advantage of the amenities. In New York, biking is a great commuting method, with about 0.7% of commuters going by bike. It also has more than a thousand miles of bike lanes and a bike-ability score of 69.

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Cute young brunette girl in sunglasses walks along the Los Angeles waterfront with palm trees and streets on a summer day.
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Farming and cultivations in Latin America. Portrait of middle aged hispanic farmer sitting proud in his tractor at sunset, holding the steering wheel. He looks at the camera and smiles happy.
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Author: Lizz Shepherd

Bio:

Lizz Shepherd is a freelance writer living in Alabama.

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