Non-profit advocacy group People For Bikes this week released its ratings of the most bike-friendly cities in the US and around the world. More than 2,500 cities received a ranking this year, nearly 40 percent of which were included for the first time. The group’s Bicycle Network Analysis ranks cities on a scale of 0 to 100 across what the group has dubbed its “SPRINT” criteria: safe speeds, protected bike lanes, reallocated space for biking and walking, intersection treatments, network connections, and trusted data.
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The 30 Most Bike-Friendly Cities in the US in 2024
Among small cities – those with a population under 50,000 – Mackinac Island, Michigan, came out on top with a score of 99.
No medium-sized or large city scored about a 78, with that score going to Davis, California. That’s not to say there aren’t great metropolitan areas for biking, however. Minneapolis (score 71), Seattle (65), and San Francisco (61), which topped the charts for cities above 300,000 people, each is undergoing significant infrastructure projects to make biking easier. Factors including sprawl, traffic, and longer commuting distances make it difficult for big cities to score as highly as smaller ones. Other cities known for being bike-friendly like Portland, Oregon, and New York City, failed to score even a 60, despite having vast networks of dedicated bike lanes.
Cities in The Netherlands dominated the group’s international rankings, topped by The Hague at 89 and Utrecht, Amsterdam, Almere, and Eindhoven also making the top 10. The Belgian cities of Brussles and Leuven, Paris and Lyon, France, and Munich, Germany, also made the cut.
Here are the final rankings:
Small Cities ( under 50,000 residents)
- Mackinac Island, Michigan: 99
- Provincetown, Massachusetts: 96
- Harbor Springs, Michigan: 92
- Springdale, Utah: 89
- Washburn, Wisconsin: 89
- Fort Yates, North Dakota: 88
- Crested Butte, Colorado: 87
- Blue Diamond, Nevada: 85
- Murdock, Nebraska: 84
- Sewanee, Tennessee: 83
Medium Cities (50,000-300,000 residents)
- Davis, California: 78
- Cambridge, Massachusetts: 72
- Berkeley, California: 71
- Boulder, Colorado: 70
- Corvallis, Oregon: 70
- Ankeny, Iowa: 70
- Ames, Iowa: 66
- Anchorage, Alaska: 64
- Hoboken, New Jersey: 62
- Grand Forks, North Dakota: 61
Large Cities (300,000+ residents)
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- Minneapolis, Minnesota: 71
- Seattle, Washington: 65
- San Francisco, California: 64
- St. Paul, Minnesota: 61
- Portland, Oregon: 59
- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: 58
- New York City, New York: 56
- Washington, D.C.: 46
- Denver, Colorado: 46
- Milwaukee, Wisconsin: 46
