Ditch Your (Electric) Car in the Best Bike Towns In America

[atlaw4u]

Is Minneapolis the most bike-friendly town in the country?

Marty Padgett - ALLCARSELECTRIC - April 7, 2010

Sometimes, a car--even an electric car like the 2011 Nissan Leaf--isn't the best way to transport yourself on errands or to work.

Bicycling's one of the greenest alternatives to gas-powered travel, and when it comes to biking-friendly commutes, a handful of cities have a huge advantage over others when it comes to being bike-friendly.

That's the word from Bicycling.com, which put together the handy infographic here. Based on results from its quick study of places with more than 100,000 people, the most bike-friendly town in the country is Minneapolis, Minnesota. In addition, some 49 other cities and towns having significant numbers of commuters using bikes, not cars, to get back and forth to their jobs.

Along with the population requirement, Bicycling also mapped out the country according to places with a "vibrant and diverse" bike culture and those with "smart, savvy bike shops."

Among the highlights? Little Rock, Arkansas--home of High Gear Media editor Nelson Ireson--has the longest bike bridge in the world. High Gear Media's Bay Area home has a special bike shuttle across the Bay Bridge during rush hour. Portland, Oregon, has bike-only areas at stoplights so senior editor Bengt Halvorson knows where to steer clear during his test drives... [Read More]

[Right Lane Cruiser]

Too bad I start and end north or south of Minneapolis for my commute. The city itself is great for biking, but not where I've got to travel.

[southerncannuck]

Should there be a caveat about he "white stuff" time of the year?

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

Here I feel comfortable cycling despite there not being any infrastructure for cyclists. The roads are wide or multi-lane or both. I cycle or walk to do small bits of shopping plus for exercise a few times per week once it's light.

Winter is a different story of course. Not only is it freezing but the roads can often be icy. Plus the snowbanks (usually) build up and affect visibility at intersections and available space on the roads.

But if I could manage the 23 miles each way I could commute pretty safely in summer as there are back road alternatives to the busiest sections.

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

Originally Posted by southerncannuck

Should there be a caveat about he "white stuff" time of the year?

Yes, it really should be "Ditch Your (Electric) Car in the Best Bike Towns In America Where There Is Also Public Transportation For The Times When The Weather Is Bad (And I Don't Mean A Bit Cold Or Rainy You Wuss, Just When It's Seriously Freezing, Snowing Heavily Or Icy)".

[KrazyDawg]

Sure, I can see myself taking a bike or public transit on a 70 mile one way trip.

[WriConsult]

I'm not surprised that Bicycling picked it over Portland, which has held the title for several years. Having grown up in Minneapolis, visiting there at least annually and having done a significant amount of bicycling there the last couple of summers, I can attest to the changes.

Minneapolis has a vast system of multi-use trails, crisscrossing not only the city but networking across huge swaths of suburbia as well. Truly impressive, and decades ahead of what we have here in Portland. We are making strides here, but getting new bike routes built through already developed areas (even along abandoned trolley routes) takes many years and millions of dollars.

The Twin Cities' trails are not all new: I rode many of them when I was a kid growing in the eastern suburbs up in the 70s and 80s, but new suburban developments have maintained the tradition and the core city has greatly enhanced the network with great additions like the Midtown Corridor. Partly this is all because of the terrain -- relatively flat to rolling with lots of long river/creek corridors lined with parkways (thank you, Olmsted brothers) that make for relatively easy trail development, but it's also partly due to a culture that has valued such amenities.

Things are still far short of what I'd like to see in terms of on-road bike lanes in the city, but great strides have been made, and suburban arterials do tend to have wide shoulders (a legacy of the need to plow huge amounts of snow) or increasingly bike lanes. Also, the city has been very progressive in pioneering the use of "sharrows" to designate shared bike/car routes where there are gaps in the bikeway network. There has clearly been some thought given to providing continuity so you don't follow a bikeway for miles and then get dumped into an unmanageable situation.

The Twin Cities also boast an impressive collection of mountain biking trail systems. Although this probably did NOT count in the ratings (road cycling-oriented organizations like Bicycling and the League of American Bicyclists tend to be ambivalent or even outright hostile toward off-road biking), it's still a big plus IMO. Within the metro area there are at least a dozen networks of GREAT singletrack trails, including several within the city limits. This too is the envy of Portland, where aside from Forest Park (which does at least have 27 miles of bikeable dirt roads that aren't considered real "mountain biking" by most cyclists) we have virtually NO legal singletrack trails anywhere in the metro area, and participating in this healthy, clean activity requires DRIVING at least an hour out of town, a major embarrassment for a city trying to polish our green credentials. Minneapolis is a shining example here, and on this front Portland can never realistically hope to catch up.

It's for the reasons above that minneapolis has long been in the top 5 bike commuting cities in the country DESPITE brutal winter weather. The last couple years, I've noticed that I frequently see cyclists on the streets even in the winter with snow all around and the bike lanes encroached upon by snowbanks. And for riders (like myself) not confident in running standard rubber tires in snow and ice, studded tires are now widely available in many different sizes and tread patterns, and eliminate any issues whatsoever with staying upright in winter conditions.

Drivers there have clearly gotten used to cyclists (as they have here), even in the winter, and Minneapolis seems to be on the verge of the same explosion of cycling that Portland has seen: drivers have gotten accustomed to seeing cyclists on the road and dealing with them, which leads more people to feel confident taking up cycling themselves, which puts more bikes visibly on the street, which leads even more people to feel comfortable trying it out, and so on. What also happens is that during this expansion, accident numbers remain fairly constant despite skyrocketing use, which means that accident rates are plummeting (further reducing the sense of danger and enticing more riders out of their cars). It's a VERY strong feedback loop, and I'm excited to see my native Minneapolis coming along for the ride!

[chibougamoo]

How about Take your Taser to Toronto, where there is an active war going on, between the militant bike-riders and the rest of the driving public.

[EVuser]

http://mplsbikelove.com/forum/index....c8446f9d0602ac

Bikes are very efficient transportation and usually faster than mosquitos which Minnesotans brags about having a lot of in the summer and few of in the winter.

[phoebeisis]

Wow, you northern and upper midwest folks are sissies. I bike everyday of the year-even when it is as cold as 28 degrees( it hit about 22 this year).

Just kidding of course.NOLA has its problems, but in general you can ride year round(except when there is 5 feet of water in the streets of course.) Yes,I know 22 degrees isn't cold(lived in Penn and Colo-Penn is nastier coldwise)

Charlie