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The 20 most bike-friendly cities in the world

Tecnniqe

Banned
Now imagine a car for every bike you see here.
Welcome to the US
parking-seastar-mamigo.jpg
 

Putosaure

Member
Paris ? Say that to my beijinger GF that was litterally panicked when she tried to ride a bike in the streets compared to Beijing.
 

niemant77

Neo Member
The first entries are ok, but then it is scraping the bottom of the barrel. As a Hamburg citizen finding my city on a bike-friendly list, I had quite a laugh. Hamburg is one of the worst cities for bicycle riders. There are some initiatives - mostly private - to pressure the mayor to invest in safer bicycle lanes, because right now it is really unsafe and most lanes are in a terrible condition. Last year there were quite a few deaths, riders got crushed under trucks.How did Wired came up with those entries?


https://www.wired.com/story/world-best-cycling-cities-copenhagenize/





  1. Copenhagen, Denmark
  2. Utretcht, Netherlands
  3. Amsterdam, Netherlands
  4. Strasbourg, France
  5. Malmö, Sweden
  6. Bordeaux, France
  7. Antwerp, Belgium
  8. Ljubljana, Slovenia
  9. Tokyo, Japan
  10. Berlin, Germany
  11. Barcelona, Spain
  12. Vienna, Austria
  13. Paris, France
  14. Seville, Spain
  15. Munich, Germany
  16. Nantes, France
  17. Hamburg, Germany
  18. Helsinki, Finland
  19. Oslo, Norway
  20. Montreal, Canada

"The world" aka Europe + tokyo, montreal.
 

Carn82

Member
They're building the largest bicycle parking facility in the world in Utrecht. It will house 12,500 bicycles. I'm not sure what they're going to do with the other 60,000 parked around the central station.

That will be on the City-side right? Looking forward to that. Saw some under-construction pics the other day, looking good. (and bit closer to me than the Jaarbeurs-side one, which is also pretty massive)
 
The first entries are ok, but then it is scraping the bottom of the barrel. As a Hamburg citizen finding my city on a bike-friendly list, I had quite a laugh. Hamburg is one of the worst cities for bicycle riders. There are some initiatives - mostly private - to pressure the mayor to invest in safer bicycle lanes, because right now it is really unsafe and most lanes are in a terrible condition. Last year there were quite a few deaths, riders got crushed under trucks.How did Wired came up with those entries?

Have to agree somewhat, it was different 10-20 years ago but traffic increased dramatically.
 

milanbaros

Member?
Hoping London can climb the list over the next 10 years. Investment is set to double and more bike lanes and associated infrastructure.
 
Berlin and Munich?

WTF? I wouldn't want to ride a bike there. Especially not in Berlin.
On the other hand they missed Münster, which is basically THE German bike city.
 
Not surprised Melbourne and Sydney Australia didn't make the list. Despite great investment into bike tracks and lanes as well as bike hiring stations our drivers continue to be cunts to our biking populace. Europe is far better in terms of sharing the roads.
 
Look at the metrics. The list is about bicycle politics, not pleasantness to use a bike in said city. The first metric is this:


And they probably find that smaller cities don't have as much influence in the world. They are also looking at stuff like bicycle sharing programs (that only make sense in big cities) and infrastructure investments (something that needed much more in big, crowded cities). In a big city you need a fancy bridge or something to bypass the mayor street, in a smaller city you might just be able to make said bike lane through a park at a fraction of the relative costs.
So the title is bullshit. If it comes to actual bike-friendliness most of the top 20 would probably be taken up by Dutch cities with lower density traffic. Small cities like Assen would beat Amsterdam or Utrecht in this category.
 

Vic

Please help me with my bad english
Can't believe my city (Montreal, Canada) managed to make the list, smh.
 

gimmmick

Member
No one rides a bike in the middle of summer here in Vegas. It's going to be 114 degrees this weekend. (And don't give me "it's only dry heat" bullshit).
 
lol Amsterdam is pretty bad actually super crowded if you're not Dutch and have been biking your entire life.
The Hague and places like Haarlem or Maastricht are way more manageable.
But that is just my take as someone who lives here :p.
 

mrklaw

MrArseFace
Is Tokyo there because fuck pedestrians? the roads are not safe to cycle on but everyone just cycles on the narrow pavements. Bloody hate it when you're walking around and it certainly isn't a 'fast' place to cycle
 

Oreiller

Member
What the fuck are Bordeaux and Paris doing in this list? I almost got killed several times last time I used a bike in Bordeaux.
 
It's scary driving or biking there imo. I don't think it will ever happen

They have made some changes on Bloor St to make it a lot safer but the new bike lanes are not as wide reaching as I would like.

If you know the right streets to go down it's relatively safe but I have had some scary experiences in the past on major roads. Toronto needs to do a lot of work still and there is a lot of push back from people who travel down from the suburbs.
 
How did Montreal make the list. I don't understand how people enjoy biking here considering the lack of dedicated bike lanes. Must be braver than me.
 
Berlin and Munich?

WTF? I wouldn't want to ride a bike there. Especially not in Berlin.
On the other hand they missed Münster, which is basically THE German bike city.
Seriously. I was gonna mention Münster, too. Kiel and Göttingen are pretty great, too.

If Munich is on that list, i fear for whatever the fuck is going down in other cities regarding bike-friendlines.

They're definitely disregarding smaller cities with much better infrastructure. See above. Weird list.

Vancouver seemed like a decent bike city in North America. And I really enjoyed biking around Colorado, particularly Boulder, too.
 
150 million over 10 years to do a substantial expansion of bike access in Copenhagen. Pennies compared to an equivalent project required to build out car infrastructure in a city. Hell, 150 million might get you a few miles of one stretch of road.
 

smisk

Member
Pretty sad that there are no US cities on here. I recently spent time in Seattle and Portland, and rented a bike in both cities. It was a super fun way to get around and way easier than a car, both cities have good infrastructure for it. Also hear biking is big in Minneapolis-St. Paul. Hopefully more cities will invest in biking, it's way more efficient (both in energy use and use of space) than cars.
 
D

Deleted member 1235

Unconfirmed Member
as an NL resident, i'm super curious about copenhagen, because the bike infra here is crazy good.

Also the entirety of the Netherlands is super well configured for bike traffic (you can literally just bike around the country). I'm curious if this is true of Denmark? Any Danish wanna comment?

I wish more countries were like this I almost wouldn't want to leave NL just based on bikes alone.
 
Haven't been to all those cities but there are some peculiar inclusions there. Bordeaux didn't strike me as overly bike friendly at all, especially with the whole old town area. In Sevilla its too damn hot to ride a bike.

On the other hand, I found Munich to be incredibly bike friendly and feel its much better than many of the cities on the list.

Pretty sad that there are no US cities on here. I recently spent time in Seattle and Portland, and rented a bike in both cities. It was a super fun way to get around and way easier than a car, both cities have good infrastructure for it. Also hear biking is big in Minneapolis-St. Paul. Hopefully more cities will invest in biking, it's way more efficient (both in energy use and use of space) than cars.

Wouldn't take it too seriously, I'm not sure the writer has ever left Europe based on this list. There is nothing in China on the list where the sheer volume of bike riders is staggering at times.
 
What's with this sarky aside, do you genuinely think places outside of western Europe, Canada and Japan would make the top 20?

The guardian had an interesting article yesterday interviewing cyclists from Germany, the US, Kenya, India and Canada

Why wouldn't anywhere in China? It's a way of life there.
 

Arials

Member
Wouldn't take it too seriously, I'm not sure the writer has ever left Europe based on this list. There is nothing in China on the list where the sheer volume of bike riders is staggering at times.

Shitloads of cyclists doesn't mean the cities are "bike-friendly". I bet the mortality rate for cyclists is nasty in China and that's before you consider the impact of air pollution on health.

Check out this article about the cities where exercise does more harm than good, lots of representation from China and India: https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/feb/13/tipping-point-cities-exercise-more-harm-than-good

The photo of smog in Beijing is horrible.
 

entremet

Member
If memory serves, everywhere outside of Tokyo is a bit friendlier to cycling, thanks to looser street traffic and not being a hyper-dense megalopolis.

I saw many people ride bikes in the sidewalks in Shibuya. There were cruiser style bikes, not road bikes, and they were going rather slow. But it irked me lol.
 
Shitloads of cyclists doesn't mean the cities are "bike-friendly". I bet the mortality rate for cyclists is nasty in China and that's before you consider the impact of air pollution on health.

Check out this article about the cities where exercise does more harm than good, lots of representation from China and India: https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/feb/13/tipping-point-cities-exercise-more-harm-than-good

The photo of smog in Beijing is horrible.

Is this a list about the most polluted cities or about people riding bikes?
 

Oare

Member
Is Tokyo there because fuck pedestrians? the roads are not safe to cycle on but everyone just cycles on the narrow pavements. Bloody hate it when you're walking around and it certainly isn't a 'fast' place to cycle

Japanese law theoretically prohibits bicycles from running on pavements except under the following circumstances:
- There's a clear sign (a round blue one) that states bicycles are allowed on the pavement
- The person riding is under 13 or over 70
- There is an indisputable safety concern (road with many cars, road too narrow, dangerous driver etc.)

But it's never actually enforced.
 

Oppo

Member
there's no way Montreal beats Ottawa for cycling.

old cobblestones vs separate Capitol Region budget paying for kilometers of pristine bike paths throughout the city, plus closing the highway for cyclists on Sunday, plus access to Hull and surrounding gorgeous region... no way
 

Arials

Member
Is this a list about the most polluted cities or about people riding bikes?

You are coming across as quite dense. This is the strapline of the article you evidently didn't even bother to skim read:

In at least 15 cities, air pollution has now become so bad that the danger to health of just 30 minutes of cycling each way outweighs the benefits of exercise altogether, according to new research

Air quality is obviously an important metric for judging "cycle friendliness".
 
Finding a place to park your bicycle in Amsterdam can get a bit messy.

anav1.jpg


Utrecht is a bit more structured, so it seems valid it's placed higher.

sea-of-bikes-utrecht.jpg


They're building the largest bicycle parking facility in the world in Utrecht. It will house 12,500 bicycles. I'm not sure what they're going to do with the other 60,000 parked around the central station.

My God, it's like stroller parking at Disney!
 
Utretcht?

Wow at this spelling error.

Amsterdam is shitty as hell to bike around in.

Try Groningen or something, which is a lot nicer to bike around in then Amsterdam.
 
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