The 5 Most-Bikeable Large Cities within the USA — Can You Title Them?

PeopleForBikes does annual rankings of the most-bikeable cities within the USA. It ranks cities in three classes — giant, medium, and small. Varied components go into the rankings. Naturally, it takes time to make massive modifications in bike infrastructure or launch massive bike packages, so rankings don’t change dramatically, however some distinctive packages and insurance policies can shoot a metropolis up the rankings pretty quick.

This 12 months has a brand new #1, however there’s additionally a slight asterisk there. PeopleForBikes determined this 12 months to separate out the 5 boroughs of New York Metropolis (NYC) as particular person “cities.” The brand new #1 is Brooklyn, NY, with 73 factors. It knocked former #1 Minneapolis to #2, however if you happen to take a look at the graph under, Brooklyn would have gained in 2024 as nicely, after a pointy rise in bikeability from 2023 to 2024. Minneapolis scored 72 factors on the PeopleForBikes score system.

Seattle claimed third (with 66 factors), after which Queens and San Francisco tied for 4th (with 63 factors every).

Within the midsized metropolis class, #1 was David, California, which has been essentially the most bikeable metropolis within the US for … many years. It scored 81 factors. In 2nd place was Berkeley, CA, with 73 factors. Corvallis, Oregon, took third place with 71 factors, and Boulder, Colorado, took 4th place with 70 factors. Rounding out the highest 5 was Cambridge, Massachusetts, with 68 factors.

You’ll have a tougher time figuring out the cities within the small metropolis class, however on the prime is a metropolis with an ideal rating of 100! That’s Mackinac Island, Michigan, which is car-free. Therefore the proper rating. Provincetown, Massachusetts, took 2nd place with a rating of 96, and Sauk Metropolis, Wisconsin, took third place with a rating of 90. There was then a four-way tie for 4th! With a rating of 89, we’ve Springdale, UT; Washburn, WI; Fayette, MO; and Murdock, NE.

One good factor to see is how a lot geographical variation there’s throughout these rankings. True, the East Coast and the West Coast do dominate, however there are additionally cities from states in the midst of the US. Right here’s a chart displaying the highest 10 cities in every class:

“These celebrity cities gained their spectacular scores on the power of sluggish native pace restrict insurance policies, related and guarded bike lane networks, next-level knowledge transparency and three different components that collectively make up the group’s methodology. However they didn’t outshine the lower-ranked cities on the listing, not less than when it got here to at least one key metric: how shortly they’re getting higher,” Streetsblog writes.

“And contemplating that 234 U.S. cities scored 50 or larger within the rankings this 12 months — up from simply 33 cities in 2019 — the race for ‘most-improved’ was arguably steeper than the race for the highest spot.” Certainly! And that’s the massive, nice takeaway — a whole bunch of cities throughout america are bettering their bikeability 12 months after 12 months. Bike infrastructure retains bettering, roads are being made safer, and an increasing number of bike-oriented packages are being launched. A easy however extremely efficient coverage, nevertheless, is simply reducing pace limits (which additionally makes vehicles extra gasoline environment friendly). One small metropolis — Hailey, Idaho — jumped from 24 factors to 77 factors after town dropped pace limits to fifteen to twenty mph on many streets.

Circling again to New York Metropolis, PeopleForBikes writes: “For the primary time, this 12 months’s rankings divide New York Metropolis into its 5 boroughs, recognizing the local-level work being carried out to enhance bicycling. Three boroughs landed within the prime 10 greatest giant U.S. cities for biking for 2025: Manhattan took the #10 spot with a rating of 51 (out of a potential 100), Queens got here in at #4 with a rating of 63, and Brooklyn took this 12 months’s #1 spot with a rating of 73, narrowly surpassing final 12 months’s top-scoring giant metropolis, Minneapolis.

“So how did Brooklyn develop into one of the best giant U.S. metropolis for biking? A powerful community of protected and related locations to journey. New York Metropolis as a complete is dwelling to 1,550 miles of motorbike lanes, bike paths, and neighborhood greenways, making it North America’s largest bicycle community. Brooklyn particularly has extra miles of motorbike lanes than every other borough.”

I look ahead to seeing the 2026 rankings and the way issues change!

Many extra particulars on this 12 months’s rankings may be discovered right here and right here.