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CA and Orange county have an awesome network of urban and Beach Bike trails. Gets a little hairy when you decide to ride on the open road
Actually, much of Orange County has an excellent network of on-street marked bicycle lanes along the right shoulder of most major through streets. I bicycle commute about 25 miles round trip every work day along the streets of Lake Forest, Mission Viejo and Rancho Santa Margarita. I have lived in OC for the past decade and pedal many thousands of miles a year, mainly along the streets (and rarely along "bike paths"). Irvine was recently named a bicycle friendly community by league of american bicyclists. You can go almost anywhere in Irvine safely on a bicycle, and the few streets that might not be too great for a bicycle have nearby parallel streets that are just fine on a bike. Huntington Beach, Costa Mesa and Fountain Valley are mostly flat and have bike lanes along many of the through streets. Lots of people in those towns use a bike as a primary means of transportation. Combine this with near perfect weather much of the year, and it makes a great place for people who like using a bicycle for transportation.
You can find great cities and towns for bike riding all over the US, and most of them are NOT on those lists that all include those same college towns of Davis, Eugene, Madison, Ft Collins, Tempe and Boulder. I agree that Philly, Chicago, Phoenix, and Denver are pretty decent cycling "big cities". I could list dozens of other places that are also somewhat bike friendly. Go to League of American Bicyclists website and look up bicycle friendly communities to see an "official" list.
Coastal southern california has weather made for bicycling. It's too bad the cities aren't very well built for bicycling.
I get around on a bike in NYC sometimes. It's really fast and convenient, the only minuses are bike thefts/vandalism (though it's not terribly bad in most of the neighborhoods I ride in), the spastic precipitation, and cold winters.
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