Where in the world would you go to take a spin in the world's most bicycle friendly cities?
The Matador Travel website recently came up with a suggested list of 15 cities. Five are in the good old U.S. of A., but not all are at the top of the League of American Bicyclists list of “platinum-level” bike friendly cities.
I usually enjoy looking at published lists of “best” bike rides, … cities, … trails, … states, … parks, … regions. It gives me a chance to think of great places to ride my bicycle or wonder what the hell the list author was thinking about.
For the most part, the Matador list seems pretty straight forward. Here are the 15 and their justifications:
Europe
Amsterdam, The Netherlands — Total support of bicycling
Barcelona, Spain — Popular bike share program
Berlin, Germany — 400,000 bike commuters daily
Copenhagen, Denmark — One-third of workforce rides bike to work
Paris, France — Largest bike-share system on Earth
North America
Boulder, Colorado — (Platinum) 15% of transportation budget goes to making streets better for cyclists
Chicago, Illinois –(Silver) Former Mayor Richard Daley supported bikes with infrastructure and laws
Davis, California — (Double platinum) More bikes than cars in the college town; both city and campus are platinum-level bicycle friendly
Ottawa, Canada — 105 miles of bike paths help make it Canada's top bike-commute city
Portland, Oregon — (Platinum) Highest rate of bike commuting in US, great support from city hall
San Francisco, California — (Gold) Efforts to make bicycling more safe pay off
The other continents
Beijing, China — Although car use on rise, bicycles still rule
Cape Town, South Africa — Making bicycles acceptable with bike lanes and parking
Bogata, Colombia — Home of weekly, car-free Ciclovia events
Perth, Australia — More than 400 miles of bike routes
Five best trails
Digging around on the Matador website, I stumbled across a list of the five best urban trails published last year in Men's Journal. Here it is as an added bonus for readers who lasted 'til the end of the story:
Atlanta: Silver Comet Trail
Boston: Minuteman Bikeway
Chicago: Chicago Lakefront Bike Path
Northern Virginia: Mount Vernon Trail
Sacramento: Jedediah Smith Memorial Trail (American River trail)
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