Video Series

Best Biking Cities

Lessons From the Best Biking Cities

Austin, TX

In Austin, Texas, a more than 400-mile bike network is being built in record time. As of September of this year, 215 miles of the all ages and abilities network are complete, connecting protected bike lanes, neighborhood bikeways and urban trails. Impressively, the Texas capital has been able to cut down the time on its network buildout by a whopping two-thirds, building more than 100 miles in the last two years alone. Watch to learn more about how Austin achieved such an impressive milestone.

Lessons From the Best Biking Cities

Berkeley, CA

Berkeley, California, a university town with roughly 121,000 people, is a true, 15-minute city, with most essential services within walking or biking distance. But Berkeley didn't become a great place to bicycle overnight. To learn more about Berkeley's evolution, as well as the ways in which the city has garnered political willpower and reimagined traffic enforcement to make biking more inclusive, we spoke with Mayor Jesse Arreguín.

Lessons From the Best Biking Cities

Copenhagen, DE

Today's bike-friendly Copenhagen is the product of more than 50 years of dedicated investment and hard work, a far cry from the city famous for its cars and traffic jams in the 1960's. The city became quieter and cleaner, even as it added residents and jobs. Today, more than half of people in Copenhagen commute by bike daily.

Lessons From the Best Biking Cities

Montreal, QB

The Canadian city of Montreal has a long history of activism for bicycle infrastructure. In fact, it was among the first Canadian cities to install bicycle lanes and today, there are more than 1,000 kilometers of bike lanes in the greater Montreal area, roughly 40% of which are segregated from cars. Over the years, Montreal has consistently updated and expanded its network, prioritizing bicycling in all seasons and normalizing it as an everyday mode of transportation.

Lessons From the Best Biking Cities

New Orleans, LA

In 2018, New Orleans didn't even have a bike plan. Today, the city has committed to building 75 new bike miles by the end of 2021. What New Orleans has been able to accomplish in the last three years is impressive, tripling the pace of its network buildout with an emphasis on network and transit connectivity. Particularly noteworthy is the work that's been done in the west bank neighborhood of Algiers, where 11 new bike miles were implemented along with the repaving of roadways, new transit stops, and pedestrian crosswalks.

Lessons From the Best Biking Cities

New York, NY

For decades, protected bike lanes were a missing tool in the American toolbox. That changed in 2007, when New York City began building protected bike lanes at a rapid pace, helping jumpstart a wave of U.S. innovation. Today, 480 miles of protected bike lanes contribute to the 1,200-mile network used by more than 800,000 residents on a regular basis. Prioritizing connections, building out bike share, and making space for everyone are key components of New York City's success.

Lessons From the Best Biking Cities

Provincetown, MA

Provincetown, Massachusetts, on the northern tip of Cape Cod, scored high in our U.S. City Ratings program. With a population of just under 3,000 people and five bike shops, development is dense in Provincetown and no highways bisect it—getting from one end of town to the other is about a seven-minute bike ride. Although small, Provincetown offers some big lessons when it comes to bicycling.

Lessons From the Best Biking Cities

San Luis Obispo, CA

San Luis Obispo earned top place in our 2020 City Ratings program, beating out more than 500 other U.S. cities. It was immediately clear that San Luis Obispo's success in bicycling didn't happen overnight. A consistent dedication to investing in their bike network over the last 20 years provided the foundation for bicycling to grow.

Lessons From the Best Biking Cities

Sevilla, ES

Between 2005 and 2010, the city of Sevilla, Spain created a 120 kilometer network of protected bike lanes - removing 5,000 parking spaces along the way. Sevilla's efforts resulted in a cycling network that forever changed the landscape of the city, and came at a fiscal bargain for city leaders.

Lessons From the Best Biking Cities

Washington, DC

Today, more than 17,000 people ride their bikes regularly to work in Washington, DC, more than three times the number of people riding compared to 2007. In 2010, the American capitol piloted the country's first modern bikeshare program and started building an ambitious network of protected bike lanes.

Make a City Great

Lessons From the Best Biking Cities

Getting Community Engagement Right

When it comes to transportation planning, gathering public feedback is a crucial part of building bike networks that work for everyone. Still, many cities struggle when it comes to community engagement. While authentic and equitable community engagement will look different everywhere, there are some best practices that can be applied across the board. In this episode, we focus on Oakland, California, where the pandemic response contains lessons for centering the voices of residents, particularly those from historically marginalized neighborhoods.

Lessons From the Best Biking Cities

Slow Streets are Safe Streets

Most cities have the bits and pieces of good places to ride bikes: A path along a river, some appealing neighborhood streets and maybe a protected bike lane. The trick, though, is to move from individual projects to connecting a biking network that allows people on bikes to travel anywhere in the community without needing to think much about how they will get there. While every street won’t be bike-friendly in the short term, linking a functional bike network is within reach in many places.

Lessons From the Best Biking Cities

Making a Better Bike Lane

Not all bike lanes are created equal, and the proof will be evident by who is using them. Think about who rides bikes in your community: Is it mostly fit and confident athletes? Do you see casual riders, women and families? If not, this might be an indicator that your city lacks a safe, convenient and attractive network, even if you have a system of bike lanes already in place.

Lessons From the Best Biking Cities

Equitable Biking is a Right

Even as advocates have fought against unsafe road design and reckless driving, pedestrian and bicycle fatalities have continued to increase, reaching new record levels in 2019. While making our streets safe for everyone is critical, relying on an enforcement-centric approach too often ignores the vastly different lived experiences of Black and brown people with law enforcement.

Lessons From the Best Biking Cities

Build Bike Projects Fast

Thanks to paint and simple physical objects that can be cheaply purchased and quickly installed, cities are delivering improved safety, better economic performance, new transportation choices and a higher quality of life. These rapid implementation methods are allowing cities to create heavily used bike networks, popular new public spaces and demonstrably safer streets for walking, biking and driving.

Lessons From the Best Biking Cities

Talking About Bike Lanes

Building a safe, interconnected network of protected bike lanes depends on gaining the support of people who only occasionally bike or never bike at all. We conducted research to understand people’s aspirations for mobility and the ways in which bike infrastructure can help them achieve their personal and civic goals. The results show majority support for building bike infrastructure that intensifies when connected to larger transportation improvements in roads, sidewalks and transit, delivering more mobility options, relief from congestion, greater safety to all and perceptions of a more livable community.