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In Central North Carolina, where I live, it has become pretty treacherous for cycling or riding a bike. Too much agressive driving, cell phone use and texting, etc on our roadways. This thread's goal is too find out where in the United States is it still reasonably safe to ride a bike or to cycle? Also, tell us what it's like cycling or riding bike in your city, town, village, or general area.
Davis, CA (a university town near Sacramento) is probably the #1 most bicycle-friendly town in the USA.
Palo Alto, CA, Eugene and Portland, OR, Boulder, CO, Madison, WI, Gainesville, FL, and Arlington, VA, are others with large numbers of bike commuters and bike lanes.
One of the worst is Pittsburgh, PA (mountainous and full of decaying bridges).
Bicycling in the Pacific NW is pretty safe still, specifically in the Everett-Seattle-Bellevue area. There's a lot of trails and paths you can take which are either split from the road or are dedicated trails (not so much outside of Bellevue-Seattle corridor, but it's still pretty good).
The drivers are conscious and try not to pass them dangerously. I see a lot of bikers in my neighborhood who also use the road and people patiently wait behind them until they can safely pass.
The current mayor is trying to expand the use of bike-only lanes. In fact, in some northern neighborhoods, he's REDUCING the number of lanes on the road to make way for more bicycle lanes.
IMHO, nature is the biggest threat to bicyclists here, and bicyclists themselves. It rains often in winter, and sometimes you get black ice in the winter. When that happens, the oil from cars and buses and the moss on the roads collect and can make conditions very slick. The hills don't help along some neighborhoods.
I'm starting to see more in Syracuse, especially near Syracuse University and the other East Side neighborhoods. There are more bike lanes on the streets/roads now too. http://onondagacyclingclub.org/
OMG, having ridden a bike in Ithaca for years there's no way I'd put it on a bike friendly list - too many clueless young drivers, streets too narrow and/or steep, minimal bike trails (many proposed for years, never built), too much parallel parking with a high possibility of getting "doored" anywhere in town.
Nearby Cortland, NY is much easier to navigate by bike - wider streets for traffic count, mostly flat, less parallel parking, less proportion of drivers who are learning both English and driving at 25. Elmira should be bike friendly with its very wide and deserted streets.
The Quad Cities of Iowa and Illinois (where I also once lived) are fairly easily negotiable by bike - there are three long trunk bikeways that can get you within a few blocks of a destination. Oddly, I went back for an American Trails Symposium and there weren't many attendees who like me biked from hotel to conference site. (Even more strangely, the bike ferry didn't have its season extended the couple of weeks to cover the conference time either...)
Most communities in PA are pretty bike unfriendly but State College is something of an exception - they have a fair number of bike lanes and trails that somewhat go to places one might want to go. PA does have a fair number of rail-trail conversions but not many of these are really usable for town errands.
Bicycling in the Pacific NW is pretty safe still, specifically in the Everett-Seattle-Bellevue area. There's a lot of trails and paths you can take which are either split from the road or are dedicated trails (not so much outside of Bellevue-Seattle corridor, but it's still pretty good).
The drivers are conscious and try not to pass them dangerously. I see a lot of bikers in my neighborhood who also use the road and people patiently wait behind them until they can safely pass.
The current mayor is trying to expand the use of bike-only lanes. In fact, in some northern neighborhoods, he's REDUCING the number of lanes on the road to make way for more bicycle lanes.
IMHO, nature is the biggest threat to bicyclists here, and bicyclists themselves. It rains often in winter, and sometimes you get black ice in the winter. When that happens, the oil from cars and buses and the moss on the roads collect and can make conditions very slick. The hills don't help along some neighborhoods.
Gainesville, home of the University of FL, has flat terrain, wide streets with bike lanes, and a grid pattern of numerically named streets and avenues, making it easy to navigate. Orlando years ago was considered one of the worst cities for bicycling by "Bicycling Magazine" but now they rate it as much better.
Washington DC is currently adding more signed bike-lanes on downtown streets, and recently opened a large bicycle service facility at the main Amtrak station. This facility offers bicycle parking, rental lockers, and repair services. Arlington, VA, a city immediately across the Potomac river, has many bike paths built along stream valleys, and alongside major arteries and bridges into DC - it was named the most pedestrian-friendly city in the USA.
Davis, CA (a university town near Sacramento) is probably the #1 most bicycle-friendly town in the USA.
Palo Alto, CA, Eugene and Portland, OR, Boulder, CO, Madison, WI, Gainesville, FL, and Arlington, VA, are others with large numbers of bike commuters and bike lanes.
One of the worst is Pittsburgh, PA (mountainous and full of decaying bridges).
Boulder is in the mountains. Portland and Eugene I believe are in a Valley, within sight of mountains. Gainesville like all of FL is flat. Palo Alto is next to S.F. Bay; it and the other cities mentioned, I suppose have average terrain.
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