America's Top 50 Bike Friendly Cities

"http://www.bicycling.com/topbikefriendlycities/home.html"

On 2010-04-08, SMS wrote:
"http://www.bicycling.com/topbikefriendlycities/home.html"

I was surprised* my home town (Grand Rapids, MI) made the list. I mean,
yeah, I used to ride a lot, but there was no real riding scene that I was
ever aware of, and the terrain isn't exactly flat, especially getting in
and out of downtown.

The coverage was pretty thin, though. I would have liked to see more links
to local advocacy groups and bike maps, not just peoples'"favorite rides".


[*] Pleasantly so

--

Kristian Zoerhoff

On 08/04/10 7:51 AM, Kristian M Zoerhoff wrote:
On 2010-04-08, wrote:
"http://www.bicycling.com/topbikefriendlycities/home.html"

I was surprised* my home town (Grand Rapids, MI) made the list. I mean,
yeah, I used to ride a lot, but there was no real riding scene that I was
ever aware of, and the terrain isn't exactly flat, especially getting in
and out of downtown.

The coverage was pretty thin, though. I would have liked to see more links
to local advocacy groups and bike maps, not just peoples'"favorite rides".



[*] Pleasantly so


They even admit that they tried for geographic diversity in the list
rather than listing the actual top 50 cities. San Jose didn't make the
list, even though it's very bicycle friendly. Silicon Valley is composed
of a bunch of small cities under 100K population, many of which are very
bicycle friendly (Palo Alto, Mountain View, Sunnyvale, Santa Clara) and
some of which are bicycle unfriendly (Cupertino, Milpitas).

On Apr 8, 9:15 am, SMS wrote:
On 08/04/10 7:51 AM, Kristian M Zoerhoff wrote:

On 2010-04-08, wrote:
"http://www.bicycling.com/topbikefriendlycities/home.html"

I was surprised* my home town (Grand Rapids, MI) made the list. I mean,
yeah, I used to ride a lot, but there was no real riding scene that I was
ever aware of, and the terrain isn't exactly flat, especially getting in
and out of downtown.

The coverage was pretty thin, though. I would have liked to see more links
to local advocacy groups and bike maps, not just peoples'"favorite rides".

[*] Pleasantly so

They even admit that they tried for geographic diversity in the list
rather than listing the actual top 50 cities. San Jose didn't make the
list, even though it's very bicycle friendly. Silicon Valley is composed
of a bunch of small cities under 100K population, many of which are very
bicycle friendly (Palo Alto, Mountain View, Sunnyvale, Santa Clara) and
some of which are bicycle unfriendly (Cupertino, Milpitas).

If these are the best 50, I don't want to see the worst. Key West is
pretty good, but it's such a small location. They don't mean a thing
until all the bike paths in America lead somewhere.

On 08/04/10 9:12 AM, TibetanMonkey, the-Monkey-with-the-Bag-of-**** wrote:
On Apr 8, 3:54 am, wrote:

"http://www.bicycling.com/topbikefriendlycities/home.html"

“There are lies, damned lies and statistics.” -Mark Twain

Well, this map must be based on statistics, not someone marking a
point at random in the map... HOW THE HELL CAN MIAMI BE AMONG THE BEST
CITIES TO RIDE A BIKE?

Having grown up in south Florida, I was amazed to see Miami as well.
Hollywood, where I lived was great though with lots of wide roads and of
course the Boardwalk where it was always a fight for bicycle access,
which they finally solved in a pretty good way by separating bicycles
and pedestrians.

And I may grant you that YES! There's quite a few bike lanes and bike
paths out there, but they are never connected. Choose any point in
Miami, say downtown Miami, and try going East or West, North or
South.

Well in Miami you also have to be very careful where you go.

My closest path is a mixed path that goes for some mile and a half,
and it makes it quite challenging to avoid hitting dogs and kids
darting into your path. But this same path must have cost over a
million bucks and counting! It has some glaring flaws in design as
well, where the lights (some juicy contract there) blind you at night,
too many, too bright, aiming at your head.

Yes, and the problem with those multi-use paths is that they're used as
an excuse to not make roads that go to the same places safe for
bicycles, or in some cases they are used as alternatives to roads. We
had to fight like crazy to get bicycles allowed on expressways (not
freeways), which are about the safest place to ride. The opposition was
just insane, they got the PTA to come out against it.

On Apr 8, 9:55*am, SMS wrote:
On 08/04/10 9:12 AM, TibetanMonkey, the-Monkey-with-the-Bag-of-**** wrote:

On Apr 8, 3:54 am, *wrote:

"http://www.bicycling.com/topbikefriendlycities/home.html"

There are lies, damned lies and statistics. -Mark Twain

Well, this map must be based on statistics, not someone marking a
point at random in the map... HOW THE HELL CAN MIAMI BE AMONG THE BEST
CITIES TO RIDE A BIKE?

Having grown up in south Florida, I was amazed to see Miami as well.
Hollywood, where I lived was great though with lots of wide roads and of
course the Boardwalk where it was always a fight for bicycle access,
which they finally solved in a pretty good way by separating bicycles
and pedestrians.

Boardwalk, great but crowded. Pedestrians still wander into the path.

But this new one has wavy lines making it impossible to separate
anyone. They even act as a catch for skate wheels. That's one of the
flaws. Besides they allow dogs on it.


And I may grant you that YES! There's quite a few bike lanes and bike
paths out there, but they are never connected. Choose any point in
Miami, say downtown Miami, and try going East or West, North or
South.

Well in Miami you also have to be very careful where you go.

If you go into Overtown just 2 blocks away... the jungle, huh?


My closest path is a mixed path that goes for some mile and a half,
and it makes it quite challenging to avoid hitting dogs and kids
darting into your path. But this same path must have cost over a
million bucks and counting! It has some glaring flaws in design as
well, where the lights (some juicy contract there) blind you at night,
too many, too bright, aiming at your head.

Yes, and the problem with those multi-use paths is that they're used as
an excuse to not make roads that go to the same places safe for
bicycles, or in some cases they are used as alternatives to roads. We
had to fight like crazy to get bicycles allowed on expressways (not
freeways), which are about the safest place to ride. The opposition was
just insane, they got the PTA to come out against it.

The people who don't ride bikes, simply don't care. And those who do
just follow the path assigned to them.

But perhaps it was all a prank about Miami.

On Apr 8, 12:49 pm, "JOHN" wrote:
"TibetanMonkey, wrote in message

...
On Apr 8, 3:54 am, SMS wrote:

Bicycles are targets

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRmDvUtxrJQVOLUTION

They seem to be doing better than many sheep who have a "license to
kill"...

"SMS" wrote in message
...
On 08/04/10 7:51 AM, Kristian M Zoerhoff wrote:
On 2010-04-08, wrote:
"http://www.bicycling.com/topbikefriendlycities/home.html"

I was surprised* my home town (Grand Rapids, MI) made the list. I mean,
yeah, I used to ride a lot, but there was no real riding scene that I was
ever aware of, and the terrain isn't exactly flat, especially getting in
and out of downtown.

The coverage was pretty thin, though. I would have liked to see more
links
to local advocacy groups and bike maps, not just peoples'"favorite
rides".



[*] Pleasantly so


They even admit that they tried for geographic diversity in the list
rather than listing the actual top 50 cities. San Jose didn't make the
list, even though it's very bicycle friendly. Silicon Valley is composed
of a bunch of small cities under 100K population, many of which are very
bicycle friendly (Palo Alto, Mountain View, Sunnyvale, Santa Clara) and
some of which are bicycle unfriendly (Cupertino, Milpitas).

This was their criteria-
--------------------
There are many important things a city can do to gain our consideration for
this list: segregated bike lanes, municipal bike racks and bike boulevards,
to name a few. If you have those things in your town, cyclists probably have
the ear of the local government-another key factor. To make our Top 50, a
city must also support a vibrant and diverse bike culture, and it must have
smart, savvy bike shops. If your town isn't named below, use this as an
opportunity to do something about it. Already on the list? Go out and enjoy
a ride. (Note: We considered only cities with populations of 100,000 or
more, and we strove for geographical diversity to avoid having a list
dominated by California's many bike-oriented cities.)
--------------------

If you asked the very casual recreational couple-time-month-at-most cyclist
if San Jose was a "bicycle friendly" city, do you really think they'd say
yes? I doubt it. You and I and most everyone we deal with in the cycling
community know the ropes and can deal with densely-populated areas and still
consider them "friendly." Dick & Jane probably feel subjectively "safer" in
an environment that could actually be less friendly and accomodating towards
cyclists but feel less threatening.

Let's look locally. Woodside isn't "Bicycle Friendly" and in fact are pretty
darned hostile towards cyclists, in terms of community support. Yet most
would feel a lot safer riding in Woodside than Sunnyvale or Palo Alto.

In any event, it was clearly stated that the selection process was designed
deliberately minimize the number of California entries into the list.

--Mike Jacoubowsky
Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReaction.com
Redwood City & Los Altos, CA USA

On Apr 9, 3:26 pm, "Mike Jacoubowsky" wrote:
"SMS" wrote in message

...



On 08/04/10 7:51 AM, Kristian M Zoerhoff wrote:
On 2010-04-08, wrote:
"http://www.bicycling.com/topbikefriendlycities/home.html"

I was surprised* my home town (Grand Rapids, MI) made the list. I mean,
yeah, I used to ride a lot, but there was no real riding scene that I was
ever aware of, and the terrain isn't exactly flat, especially getting in
and out of downtown.

The coverage was pretty thin, though. I would have liked to see more
links
to local advocacy groups and bike maps, not just peoples'"favorite
rides".

[*] Pleasantly so

They even admit that they tried for geographic diversity in the list
rather than listing the actual top 50 cities. San Jose didn't make the
list, even though it's very bicycle friendly. Silicon Valley is composed
of a bunch of small cities under 100K population, many of which are very
bicycle friendly (Palo Alto, Mountain View, Sunnyvale, Santa Clara) and
some of which are bicycle unfriendly (Cupertino, Milpitas).

This was their criteria-
--------------------
There are many important things a city can do to gain our consideration for
this list: segregated bike lanes, municipal bike racks and bike boulevards,
to name a few. If you have those things in your town, cyclists probably have
the ear of the local government-another key factor. To make our Top 50, a
city must also support a vibrant and diverse bike culture, and it must have
smart, savvy bike shops. If your town isn't named below, use this as an
opportunity to do something about it. Already on the list? Go out and enjoy
a ride. (Note: We considered only cities with populations of 100,000 or
more, and we strove for geographical diversity to avoid having a list
dominated by California's many bike-oriented cities.)
--------------------

If you asked the very casual recreational couple-time-month-at-most cyclist
if San Jose was a "bicycle friendly" city, do you really think they'd say
yes? I doubt it. You and I and most everyone we deal with in the cycling
community know the ropes and can deal with densely-populated areas and still
consider them "friendly." Dick & Jane probably feel subjectively "safer" in
an environment that could actually be less friendly and accomodating towards
cyclists but feel less threatening.

Let's look locally. Woodside isn't "Bicycle Friendly" and in fact are pretty
darned hostile towards cyclists, in terms of community support. Yet most
would feel a lot safer riding in Woodside than Sunnyvale or Palo Alto.

In any event, it was clearly stated that the selection process was designed
deliberately minimize the number of California entries into the list.


Signs of danger:

a) No one else riding out there,

b) Riders on sidewalk,

c) Lots of road rage.

If you ignore those warnings, you are stupid. They all happen together
around here.

On Apr 9, 3:01 pm, "TibetanMonkey, the-Monkey-with-the-Bag-of-****"
wrote:
On Apr 9, 3:26 pm, "Mike Jacoubowsky" wrote:



"SMS" wrote in message

...

On 08/04/10 7:51 AM, Kristian M Zoerhoff wrote:
On 2010-04-08, wrote:
"http://www.bicycling.com/topbikefriendlycities/home.html"

I was surprised* my home town (Grand Rapids, MI) made the list. I mean,
yeah, I used to ride a lot, but there was no real riding scene that I was
ever aware of, and the terrain isn't exactly flat, especially getting in
and out of downtown.

The coverage was pretty thin, though. I would have liked to see more
links
to local advocacy groups and bike maps, not just peoples'"favorite
rides".

[*] Pleasantly so

They even admit that they tried for geographic diversity in the list
rather than listing the actual top 50 cities. San Jose didn't make the
list, even though it's very bicycle friendly. Silicon Valley is composed
of a bunch of small cities under 100K population, many of which are very
bicycle friendly (Palo Alto, Mountain View, Sunnyvale, Santa Clara) and
some of which are bicycle unfriendly (Cupertino, Milpitas).

This was their criteria-
--------------------
There are many important things a city can do to gain our consideration for
this list: segregated bike lanes, municipal bike racks and bike boulevards,
to name a few. If you have those things in your town, cyclists probably have
the ear of the local government-another key factor. To make our Top 50, a
city must also support a vibrant and diverse bike culture, and it must have
smart, savvy bike shops. If your town isn't named below, use this as an
opportunity to do something about it. Already on the list? Go out and enjoy
a ride. (Note: We considered only cities with populations of 100,000 or
more, and we strove for geographical diversity to avoid having a list
dominated by California's many bike-oriented cities.)
--------------------

If you asked the very casual recreational couple-time-month-at-most cyclist
if San Jose was a "bicycle friendly" city, do you really think they'd say
yes? I doubt it. You and I and most everyone we deal with in the cycling
community know the ropes and can deal with densely-populated areas and still
consider them "friendly." Dick & Jane probably feel subjectively "safer" in
an environment that could actually be less friendly and accomodating towards
cyclists but feel less threatening.

Let's look locally. Woodside isn't "Bicycle Friendly" and in fact are pretty
darned hostile towards cyclists, in terms of community support. Yet most
would feel a lot safer riding in Woodside than Sunnyvale or Palo Alto.

In any event, it was clearly stated that the selection process was designed
deliberately minimize the number of California entries into the list.

Signs of danger:

a) No one else riding out there,

b) Riders on sidewalk,

c) Lots of road rage.

If you ignore those warnings, you are stupid. They all happen together
around here.

I'll ignore what I want. You call me stupid if you want. (See if I
care.)

Actually, quite a few people out riding this morning. Things are
looking up., Still the city I ride to has got to be one of the 50
worst.