Take That Portland!

[Norse]

Minneapolis knocks off Portland as most bike-friendly city! http://www.startribune.com/local/90003892.html.

[tulip]

Why do the most bike-friendly cities have to be so darn wet and cold??

[bmccasland]

Why do the most bike-friendly cities have to be so darn wet and cold??

Good question - what about nice balmy places????

[Tri Girl]

Hmmm... good for Minneapolis, but it's only warm there for about one week a year. I kid, I kid.
Seriously- that's very cool. I just wish there was a warm bike friendly city. C'mon Arizona or Florida- let's kick it up a notch.

[Norse]

Three of the bottom ranked cities were "nice, balmy places" - Memphis, Jacksonville and somewhere in Alabama.

[PscyclePath]

Like a lot of other things in Bicycling, that's strictly the staff's collective opinion... their ranking doesn't have much of anything to do with the LAB's Bicycle-Friendly America program, which has a lot more standards and performance measures.

Bicycling got most of their numbers from the Alliance for Biking & Walking's new 2010 Benchmarking Report, which looks at several other things.

[ummbnb]

Boulder ranked #3, Denver #12 and Colo Spgs #18 = Go Colorado!

[OakLeaf]

OTOH, the LAB ranks Florida fairly high, and anyone who's actually ridden a bicycle in Florida can tell you it's one of the most bike-UNfriendly places in the USA.

[PscyclePath]

OTOH, the LAB ranks Florida fairly high, and anyone who's actually ridden a bicycle in Florida can tell you it's one of the most bike-UNfriendly places in the USA.

Agreed... nearly one out of every four cyclists killed in the United States meets his or her fate in Florida. And Texas and California aren't too far behind them.

[tulip]

Agreed... nearly one out of every four cyclists killed in the United States meets his or her fate in Florida. And Texas and California aren't too far behind them.

Not sure that this means much...those are some of the states with the highest overall population, so it would make sense that the most cyclists killed would be from those states. California, at least, also likely has a higher percentage of cyclists compared to other states.

Wouldn't a more useful statistic would be the number of cyclists killed per capita?

However, I will not ride my bike in Florida. Too bad because the weather is great and it's not too far away from where I live.

[MommyBird]

I am with Tulip.
Nebulous statistics drive me crazy.

[shootingstar]

Agreed... nearly one out of every four cyclists killed in the United States meets his or her fate in Florida. And Texas and California aren't too far behind them.

I didn't know about this. But like everyone else is saying how many cyclists per capita in each state for a more clearer comparison.

[GLC1968]

Part of the reason for more cycling deaths in those states could be because there are more cyclists out year-round than there might be in other areas, too.

That said, I lived in FL for 7 years. I only mountain biked or biked on campus pathways. You couldn't pay me to ride on the roads with those drivers.

[OakLeaf]

And when they do kill a cyclist, there's rarely even a traffic ticket, let alone a criminal prosecution. An experienced cyclist was rear-ended in broad daylight not four miles from my house. According to the authorities, it was his own fault.

So the other drivers are reinforced in their idea that cyclists don't belong on the road and that they can buzz us, cut us off and even kill us with impunity.

That's what I mean by cyclist-unfriendly.

[smilingcat]

ofcourse all of this insanity would stop, if the gallon of gas went to $10.00/gallon or another Arab embargo or OPEC oil becomes unavailable.

sometimes I really hate statistics. number of those killed per capita isn't right either is it? Shouldn't it be more of per number of miles ridden to account for discrepency due to climate. Minn: ride 10 days out of the year cause its sooo cold rest of the time.
Or in SoCal: ride 365 days a year cause well its sunny and nice 365 days a year .

It's bit too morbid for me to think this way.

I loved Portland!! Well I loved the Pacific Northwest. I couldn't help notice but everyone was so fair... So pleasant down to earth nice. Portland had that small town feel... Definitly a nice place to bike even with all that rain.

Haven't really walked around in Minn. so can't say about the place.