PeopleForBikes’ 2024 City Ratings Data

For the vast majority of our readers, bikes are a tool for recreation and a way to get the heck out of Dodge; we throw them on a rack and drive to the trailhead for laps or a big out-and-back. They are used in controlled environments that are (usually) purpose-built for them, but for most of the country and the rest of the world, bikes are a means of transportation, so where you live dictates how efficient and, more importantly, how safe it can be to get around on two wheels.

Today, PeopleForBikes , and the U.S. bicycle industry’s trade association have just announced the results of the 2024 City Ratings for cycling infrastructure. This comprehensive ranking of cities is based on the quality of their bike networks for those who commute on the bike rather than purely for recreational use, which I’m sure would be a vastly different list of cities if it were to look at trail system users alone. This year’s City Ratings includes 2,300 U.S. cities, categorized by population. How do you rank a city, you might be asking? How is this quantifiable?

Cities are ranked using the SPRINT acronym: Safe speeds, Protected bike lanes, Reallocated space for biking and walking, Intersection treatments, Network connections, and Trusted data. These criteria are harvested from data provided by PeopleForBikes’ Bicycle Network Analysis (BNA).

But it is more than just data. PeopleForBikes utilizes its City Ratings program to benchmark cities’ progress in improving the quality, connectivity, and usability of their bike networks. It also establishes best practices for city leaders, decision-makers, and advocates to identify areas of improvement to make commuting by bike that much more enjoyable.

“By documenting annual improvements in the quality of cities’ low-stress bike networks through City Ratings, we help decision-makers prioritize critical projects like protected bike lanes and shared use paths and the policies behind them,” - Martina Haggerty, senior director of local innovation at PeopleForBikes.

I know that I am in the minority of riders who prefer to ride rather than drive to the trailhead, and this adds a bit of extra time on the bike, navigating the city to recognize where the pain points are in terms of cycling infrastructure. Here in Boise, ID. which ranks at #912 in the country and #2 in the state of Idaho, just behind Coeur D'Alene, I am fortunate to live close enough to the trailhead that I can hop on the bike and be on dirt within 20 minutes.

In these 20 minutes, though, I am riding past construction that pushed me out of the protected bike lane, confusing stops where cars are frequently rolling through without paying me any mind, or roundabouts that throw me into the flow of traffic without warning, making the commute to and from the trail arguably more treacherous than the singletrack. So, personally, I am all for this type of research and discussion for the continued improvements to make commuting safer for everyone, regardless of the destination.

“While hundreds of U.S. cities are committed to improving the efficiency and safety of their transportation systems through policy statements and plans, City Ratings leaders are those that follow through on those aspirations by redesigning their streets to make bicycling safer and more accessible to people of all ages and abilities,” - Rebecca Davies, City Ratings program director.

In 2019 statistics showed a shocking trend with only 33 U.S. cities, garnering a score of 50 or higher. With a seven-year log of City Ratings data, PeopleForBikes marks a score of 50 as the the threshold to becoming a great place to bike, with investments in bike infrastructure creating more opportunities for people to commute by bike and incentivizing local support for better biking.

Due to concerted efforts to create safe and connected places to bike, 33 cities that scored below 50 in 2019 increased their scores to 50+ in 2024. Combined with new cities added to the program over that time, we now see 183 U.S. cities scoring more than 50 in this year’s City study. Notable cities that improved their City Ratings score in recent years include Salt Lake City (46 in 2020, 52 in 2024); Ames, Iowa (40 in 2020, 66 in 2024); Ann Arbor, Michigan (40 in 2020, 46 in 2024); Madison, Wisconsin (50 in 2020, 58 in 2024); Cambridge, Massachusetts (36 in 2020, 72 in 2024); and Austin, Texas (13 in 2020, 34 in 2024).

“You can truly see PeopleForBikes’ vision in action with the release of our annual City Ratings. Combined with our Great Bike Infrastructure Project and relentless policy work to secure more funding for bikes at all levels of government, we are committed to creating an environment where more people ride bikes more often and the U.S. is the best place in the world to ride a bike,” said PeopleForBikes President and CEO Jenn Dice. " By working to improve city scores over time, we gauge the impact of local investments and policy changes on cities’ bike networks. This data helps us be more effective and move faster.”

City Ratings works in tandem with PeopleForBikes’ Great Bike Infrastructure Project, which tracks progress on building and activating more than 1,400 bicycle infrastructure projects across the U.S. Designed to improve cities' scores, the program provides a state and local model, a best practices policy guide with real-world examples to assist local elected officials and advocates in securing funding and implementing more projects in their communities.

While we all know that no dataset is perfect, and it can only quantify the tangible, and with “bikability” being so incredibly subjective, it is inspiring to see so much effort going into identifying these pain points while actually offering executable solutions to improve the infrastructure that so many depend on.

2024’s Best U.S. Cities for Bicycling

Small Cities (<50,000 population)

1. Mackinac Island, Michigan: 99

2. Provincetown, Massachusetts: 96

3. Harbor Springs, Michigan: 92

4. Springdale, Utah: 89

5. Washburn, Wisconsin: 89

6. Fort Yates, North Dakota: 88

7. Crested Butte, Colorado: 87

8. Blue Diamond, Nevada: 85

9. Murdock, Nebraska: 84

10. Sewanee, Tennessee: 83

Medium Cities (50,000-300,000 population)

1. Davis, California: 78

2. Cambridge, Massachusetts: 72

3. Berkeley, California: 71

4. Boulder, Colorado: 70

5. Corvallis, Oregon: 70

6. Ankeny, Iowa: 70

7. Ames, Iowa: 66

8. Anchorage, Alaska: 64

9. Hoboken, New Jersey: 62

10. Grand Forks, North Dakota: 61

Large Cities (>300,000 population)

1. Minneapolis, Minnesota: 71

2. Seattle, Washington: 65

3. San Francisco, California: 64

4. St. Paul, Minnesota: 61

5. Portland, Oregon: 59

6. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: 58

7. New York City, New York: 56

8. Arlington, Virginia: 53

9. Washington, D.C.: 46

10. Denver, Colorado: 46

Are you curious how your city stacks up? You can use the PeopleForBikes City Ranking Checker to gain some insight and analyze the data for yourself. The beautiful thing about the transparency in this data is that anyone can use the provided tools to find ways to advocate for localized initiatives that will improve infrastructure, make for safer bike routes, and cleaner shoulders, and ideally, we can all be riding to and from the trailhead.