BOULDER, Colo. (BRAIN) — Provincetown, Massachusetts, tops PeopleForBikes' 2022 City Ratings for the best U.S. cities for biking. The year-long study was completed in conjunction with Trek Bicycle.
Ranked are 1,058 cities, highlighting communities that "embrace the bicycle as a tool for mobility, economic growth, and recreation," according to PeopleForBikes, which has conducted the research yearly for the past six years.
Cities are scored and ranked using a combination of PeopleForBikes' Bicycle Network Analysis and Community Survey, resulting in an overall score of 1-100. Provincetown received a rating of 81.
Davis, California (72); and Fayette, Missouri (71), round out the top three cities.
According to PeopleForBikes, the results are the culmination of research and data collection — including factors such as cities' speed limits, existing infrastructure and overall safety, as well as community input on what people think about biking in their city.
Notable statistics from this year's research include Seattle's five-point jump in score from 54 to 59, as well as consistent but smaller increases from most large cities, including Brooklyn, New York; San Francisco; Philadelphia; Portland, Oregon; St. Paul, Minnesota; and Detroit. The city with the highest Community Survey score (70) was Bentonville, Arkansas.
Rounding out the bottom three were Oak Park, Illinois; Mount Vernon, New York; and Pelham Manor, New York, each with a 2 rating. Of the 1,058 American communities included in the survey, 95% garnered fewer than 50 points, a sign that the majority of U.S. cities have room for improvement in terms of bicycling infrastructure and safety, according to PeopleForBikes.
"The Bicycle Network Analysis (BNA) tool provides the basis for each city's score, demonstrating how easy it is for residents to get to key services like grocery stores, employment, healthcare and more," said Rebecca Davies, City Ratings program director. "Not only does the BNA highlight if riders can get to these places, it shows how safe it is to do so by ranking streets as high or low stress based on factors like the quality of bike infrastructure and street speed limits. When combined with our Community Survey, we are not only able to see what the maps of these cities tell us, but also what the people actually riding in these cities think about biking where they live, work and play."
Also included alongside the ratings are PeopleForBikes' Best Places to Bike for 2022, and 10 U.S. cities that all offer actionable lessons on improving bicycling locally. Focusing on youth engagement, connecting bike networks and building trails for all skill levels are just a few ways any city can become a best place to bike, according to PeopleForBikes.
Trek Bicycle has been a longtime coalition member and partner of PeopleForBikes and the City Ratings program and once again has underwritten the project for 2022 through a donation based on a portion of sales from its Bontrager helmet line.
In addition to the U.S. cities ranked, PeopleForBikes analyzed 47 cities in Canada. European and Australian results will be released later this year.
