Best Cities for Biking

[Geonz]

I'm hoping people are educable; Urbana is affectionately called the "people's republic of urbana" because it leans to the left and tends to try to be friendly to the planet and that sort of thing. There are lots of efforts happening now to "involve the citizenry" (much hot air and not sure it's actually connected to *anything* real except a reason to pay consultants to facilitate meetings), and several of the consultants have been taken aback at the disparity between the number of cyclists, the number of people who have expressed a strong desire for at least the concept of a "bike-friendly" place (but most of them think that means bike paths, bike paths, bike paths) and the relative lack of facilities or support for cycling and pedestrian transportation; the population density and personalities would seem to support it.
But hey, let's see where we are in five years. Thursday we were talkin' about trying to be another Madison :-)

[Maureen Valley]

I have to add my 2 cents in endorsing Minneapolis as a primo biking city. The inner city lakes alone (Lakes Harriet, Lake of the Isles and Calhoun) are worth the price of admission. They're all connected. There is a rock solid biking community in Minneapolis and in the surrounding area and the outlying countryside offers some of the best rolling hills ever for the serious road biker.

The downside is the brutality of winter. But...I used to ride my mountain bike in the snow along Mississippi River Boulevard for miles and miles. The only danger was that occasional patch of ice under fresh snow and KABOOM...down I'd go.

T'isn't for the frail or the weak of heart. I'm now in sunny, but flat Florida. It's an entirely different biking world down here.

Best to all:
Maureen