The better a city is for riding bikes, the better that place is to live. Bike-friendly cities are healthier, cleaner, more sustainable places to live, play, and thrive. Unfortunately, millions of Canadians do not have access to all of the health and economic benefits of a bike-friendly city. PeopleForBikes is helping to change that.

Every year, PeopleForBikes compiles a list of the US and Canada’s most bike-friendly cities based on a set of data-driven criteria that provide a robust view of a city’s cycling infrastructure. The idea is that identifying the best US and Canadian cities and towns for bicycling can help city leaders pinpoint opportunities for improvements they can make in their own communities.

Using feedback from everyday bike riders, city staffers, open-source maps, and publicly available data, PeopleForBikes scores cities on five key factors: Ridership, Safety, Network, Acceleration and Reach. You can find their data sources here.

Ridership

The Ridership score reflects how many people in the community ride bikes. It considers biking for both recreational biking and biking for transportation.

Safety

The Safety score considers fatalities and injuries of people on bikes as well as those walking and driving. Perceptions of safety are also given weight.

Network

The Network score evaluates the quality of the bike network — how completely it connects people to each other and local destinations using comfortable routes. Perceptions of the network are also given weight.

Reach

The Reach score determines how well a community’s low-stress network serves all members of the community. It uses demographic data to understand differences in access and connectivity for traditionally underserved populations compared to the whole city.

Acceleration

The Acceleration score assesses how quickly a community is improving its biking infrastructure and how successful its encouragement programs are at getting people to ride.

PeopleForBikes’ 2020 Top 10 US Cities for Bikes

1. San Luis Obispo, CA 
2. Madison, WI 
3. Toronto, ON, Canada
4. Santa Barbara, CA 
5. Washington, DC 
6. Missoula, MT 
7. Rogers, AR  
8. Fort Collins, CO 
9. Denver, CO 
10. Grand Forks, ND 
11. Fayetteville, AR
12. Ann Arbor, MI  
13. Portland, OR
14. Tucson, AZ  
15. Bella Vista, AR
16. Brooklyn, NY  
17. Provincetown, MA
18. New Orleans, LA  
19. Arlington, VA 
20. Austin, TX 

Get your city ranked!

The more data that city planners and municipalities have, the better equipped they’ll be to create better and safer spaces for everyone to ride. To get your city rated and start making it a better place for bikes, take the survey here.