Your Support Connects Communities Through Bicycling

Gravel and Changing Leaves west of Boulder

Ambassador C.C.'s "It’s An Uptown Thang!" Ride

DC Brewery Tour- Four Breweries, 15 miles of fun!

Recycling electric bicycle batteries — one bite at a time

Encourage employees to get out of their seats

Every year, PeopleForBikes releases the results of its City Ratings, a data-driven program that evaluates, identifies, and compares the best global cities and towns for bicycling. Using this data, we help city leaders pinpoint improvements to make biking better and safer for everyone in their communities.

City Ratings scores are generated using PeopleForBikes’ Bicycle Network Analysis, which you can learn more about here. High-scoring cities often perform well across six factors captured in the acronym SPRINT: safe speeds, protected bike lanes, reallocated space for biking and walking, intersection treatments, network connections, and trusted data.

For 2023, we rated 1,484 cities of all sizes throughout the U.S. and 249 international cities on the quality of their bike networks. Each city receives a City Ratings score on a scale of 0-100. A low score (0-20) indicates a weak bike network, meaning the city lacks safe bikeways or there are gaps in the network. A high score (80-100) indicates that most common destinations are accessible by safe, comfortable bike routes that serve people of all ages and abilities. For larger cities, a score of 50 is the tipping point to becoming a great place to bike.

With so much data to sort through, we created this summary report to showcase how the program works alongside high-level takeaways from this year’s ratings.




For 2023, the top-scoring small, medium, and large U.S. cities for bicycling are: Provincetown, Massachusetts; Davis, California; and Minneapolis, Minnesota. Minneapolis, Minnesota, saw a tremendous increase in its score over last year, improving 31 points between 2022 and 2023, landing at the #1 spot in large U.S. cities for this year. 

Newcomers to the top 10 include Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a large city that improved its ratings score from 35 out of 100 in 2022 to 45 out of 100 in 2023. That jump also helped Wisconsin see a substantial rise in ridership as well. Eco-Counter data shows that ridership growth in the state outpaced the rest of the Midwest region: On the weekends, there are 20% more rides happening across Wisconsin than there were in 2019 and weekday rides are up 27%.  

Longmont, Colorado, also edged its way into the top 10 medium cities, improving its score from 36 in 2022 to 59 in 2023. Among small cities, Blue Diamond, Nevada; Murdock, Nebraska; Shorewood, Wisconsin; and Mifflinburg, Pennsylvania, are all new to City Ratings and earned top 10 spots for 2023. Jackson, Wyoming, also moved into the top 10 small cities for the first time this year.


The average score among all U.S. cities is 23 out of 100. Cities in the top 10 score 55 out of 100 on average.


Five percent of U.S. cities score 50 or higher in this year’s City Ratings, with 50 being the threshold score for becoming a great place for bicycling. Meanwhile, more than half of U.S. cities score between 10 and 30.


Among medium and large cities with more than 50,000 residents, the top-scoring city in each state ranged from Davis, California (77) to Cheyenne, Wyoming (7).

Speed limits play a large role in City Ratings scores, and a growing number of cities across the U.S. are lowering speeds to make their roads safer. Slightly more than half of U.S. cities have speed limits of 25 mph or less on residential roads, while the remaining cities with speed limits of 30 mph or greater on residential roads could improve the safety of their bike network by reducing travel speeds.

Roads outside of residential areas also benefit from speed limit reductions, alone or in combination with other safety improvements such as upgrading bicycle infrastructure. The chart below summarizes the bike infrastructure needed on local roads based on their speed limits to improve a city’s score. 

Now in our sixth year of City Ratings, multiple years of data allow us to see changes in the quality of cities’ bike networks over time. Data quality has improved over the years as well, which is reflected in score changes. The chart below illustrates five years of data measuring the quality of bike networks among this year’s top 10 large cities.

More than just data, PeopleForBikes utilizes its City Ratings program to benchmark cities’ progress on improving the quality and connectivity of their bike networks as well as establish best practices for city leaders, decision-makers, and advocates to identify improvements to be made in their communities, ultimately making bicycling better for everyone.

From trade to consumer product regulations, federal policymakers are taking a closer look at policy options to protect the import, sale, and ownership of quality electric bicycles in the United States. As the nation’s only trade association for the bicycle industry, PeopleForBikes is committed to advancing strong policies and regulations to protect consumers and our members across the bicycle supply chain. New proposals before Congress and the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) could lead us to a future where consumers and riders don’t have to worry about whether the helmet or electric bicycle they’re purchasing meets applicable testing standards designed to help keep them safe.

We’ve already written about the CPSC’s comment period for electric bicycles and our goals for setting federal standards for e-bikes. The other side of the coin is how potentially unsafe products that don’t meet these standards are able to get through our ports and entry systems and into the hands of American consumers. Keeping the public safe from such products is, or should be, the most basic function of our national trade policy. 

Thanks to bicycling’s biggest advocate in Congress, Bike Caucus Founder and Co-chair Congressman Earl Blumenauer (D-OR-04) — as well as his colleagues Rep. Neal Dunn (R-FL-17) and Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) — the newly reintroduced Import Security and Fairness Act (H.R. 4148/S. 2004) would end “de minimis” treatment for goods imported from China and Russia. 

Before diving into what that means for bikes, it’s important to understand what de minimis means: most countries set a de minimis threshold to allow small dollar imports to bypass duties. In order to reduce the administrative burden of collecting tariffs for small shipments, almost every country specifies a de minimis amount for which tariffs and duties are not collected. Specifically, the U.S. defines the de minimis threshold as follows:

De minimis provides admission of articles free of duty and of any tax imposed on or by reason of importation, but the aggregate fair retail value in the country of shipment of articles imported by one person on one day and exempted from the payment of duty shall not exceed $800 (Section 321, 19 USC 1321).

In 2016, President Obama signed the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015. This law significantly raised the value of a shipment of merchandise that may be imported free of duty from $200 to $800. While this change may have made sense for the international traveler returning with some items from a trip abroad, it failed to consider the impact on direct online sales to U.S. consumers from foreign sellers. This law has had the unintended consequence of rapidly shifting purchases formerly made from American retailers to foreign online sellers, making those purchases duty-free and thus allowing them to avoid the formal customs entry process whereby incoming goods are monitored and inspected by various government agencies, including the CPSC. 

Most countries set these de minimis amounts at much lower levels than the current U.S. amount. Subject to fluctuations in exchange rates, Canada sets the level at $15, Mexico at $100, Japan at $90, South Korea at $150, and the European Union at $170. The de minimis duty-free import level for China is less than $10. While our prior level of $200 was comparable to these trading partners, the increase to $800 vastly exceeds these global norms. 

The increase in the de minimis threshold provides a clear competitive advantage for foreign retailers of consumer goods. Customers can shop online from internationally based retailers or manufacturers, which openly advertise the fact that tariffs are not collected on shipments below $800, and buy products duty-free. In essence, the law enables foreign businesses to set artificially low prices by avoiding tariffs on goods that would be collected if imported by U.S. businesses and sold domestically. This is especially true of bicycles, many e-bikes, and other bicycle products, the vast majority of which are valued at less than $800.

PeopleForBikes has been advocating for a lower domestic de minimis threshold since it was increased in 2016 and outlined the issue as a priority in our 2021 Trade Agenda. The sponsors of the newly proposed Import Security and Fairness Act introduced the bill to limit the import of products made with forced labor, intellectual property theft, and otherwise dangerous goods. 

So, how does this trade loophole connect back to electric bicycle safety?

Many powered micromobility products and replacement lithium ion batteries involved in the fires that have damaged New York City are imported directly to consumers from foreign sellers because they cost less than $800, therefore falling under the de minimis threshold. These products are cheaper than quality, safe electric bicycles and other powered micromobility products because they do not undergo or meet any third-party testing requirements. 

Moreover, because these foreign sellers may be beyond the reach of U.S. courts, they are largely able to avoid legal liability to their international consumers. Should the Import Security and Fairness Act be signed into law, or Congress otherwise agrees to lower the de minimis threshold, these unsafe, untested products would face more scrutiny on import and shippers would be required to pay any applicable duties.

The next step to increase consumer safety would be the adoption of new CPSC regulations to create clear standards for all lithium ion batteries used in mobility devices, including e-bikes, that currently avoid scrutiny under de minimis. The best way to protect the public from untested and unsafe lithium ion batteries is to be able to identify and turn them away at the border before they enter the United States.

This one-two punch of federal policy and trade and consumer product safety working together would help ensure that the e-mobility products that Americans need and want are as safe as possible. It would also shift the economic benefit from selling these products back to responsible manufacturers and retailers in the United States. This would be a big win for the government, the economy, and consumers alike.

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Nestled at the foot of the Teton Mountain Range in western Wyoming, the town of Jackson is perhaps best known for its access to world-class skiing and the picturesque Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. Thanks to the efforts of local advocates and community leaders though, Jackson is increasingly recognized as a great place for bicycling, too.

According to Sam Petri, the movement for better biking started back in 1994 with the founding of Friends of Pathways, Jackson’s local advocacy group for pathways and trails. Founded by Tim Young, a driving force behind the construction of hundreds of miles of walking and biking trails across Wyoming, the organization helped build Jackson’s first bicycle pathway in 1996.

“Today, we maintain 152 miles of dirt trails and 72 miles of separated pathways throughout Teton County, including 15 miles in Grand Teton National Park,” says Petri, who works as communications and advocacy director at Friends of Pathways.

For 2023, Jackson ranked #6 out of nearly 1,500 U.S. cities in PeopleForBikes’ City Ratings, an annual program that evaluates and identifies the best places for bicycling. Jackson scored an impressive 79 out of a possible 100, putting it on par with some of the best places for bicycling in the world. Brian Schilling, pathways coordinator at Jackson Hole Community Pathways, attributes much of Jackson’s success to the connectivity of its bike network. 

“No matter where you live, work, or go to school, we’re almost to the point where we have the proper facility to get you there safely,” says Schilling. “The shortfall of a lot of systems is that they have one great rec trail, but it doesn’t get you where you need to go. Our goal is to connect you to all of your daily activities, whether it’s your commute or recreation.”

Similar to many places putting in the effort to make biking safer and more connected, Schilling says one of the biggest challenges in shaping a town that embraces bicycling is overcoming the historic norms of how streets are used.

“When pathways were starting to be constructed 30 years ago, it was a foreign concept. People didn’t understand the need or thought it was a waste of money,” says Schilling, noting that when working with existing streets that people have used the same way for 50 years, there will understandably be some pushback when changes start to be made. “After that period of resistance, however, our goal is that 20 years from now we can look back with a new idea of ‘that’s how it’s always been.’ I look forward to when someone visiting Jackson or someone born in Jackson today thinks, ‘This is normal.’”

With an expansive network of trails connecting residents and visitors to the surrounding county, recent projects have focused heavily on improving bicycling within Jackson’s downtown corridor. In March of 2022, the Jackson Town Council approved the Willow Street safe routes project, which created protected bike lanes along one of the town’s main thoroughfares.

“The project covered a really large stretch of road and the new protected bike lanes really changed how it feels to move down Willow Street,” says Petri, who uses the route to bike with his kids to school. “The route connects people to the rec center, Jackson Elementary, downtown, Snow King ski area, our rodeo grounds and fairgrounds, the library, multiple affordable housing projects, and tons of national forest access. It’s hard to imagine life without it.”

While there was early pushback around how many people would truly use bike lanes in Jackson, Petri says that the numbers don’t lie.

“We see 500 riders per day on Willow Street and 1,000 on the connecting Snow King Avenue protected lane,” says Petri, reiterating how impressive the numbers are for a town of just 10,000 people. “You can see the numbers grow every summer — there are more people biking than ever before.”

For Schilling, the power of pathways comes not only from their ability to get people where they need to go but in fostering a sense of community and connectedness. 

“Riding along a pathway in town allows you to have those five-minute conversations with people you can’t have sitting alone in your car,” says Schilling. “Pathways do more than give people a nice bike ride. They create community.”

Bikeways also directly benefit youth, providing them with mobility and independence as they grow up in a small town. 

 “It starts with riding with mom and dad, then grows to riding to a friend's house or school by yourself,” says Schilling. “As your radius of mobility grows, you can have the whole valley at your disposal by high school. And as a parent, you can feel safe knowing your child can leave home and get wherever they want or need to go safely and without driving. “

Building on that sense of community, Petri says that local support for bike-related projects will be monumental in Jackson’s continued efforts to become even better for bicycling.

“I feel like our community has the appetite for positive change,” says Petri. “With encouraging feedback around our existing network, we know we have the support to keep plugging away and doing the good work.”

Looking ahead, Schilling says he wants to take Jackson’s bike infrastructure to the next level, heavily inspired by work being done in Europe.

“Bollards are good for now, but there’s a whole new level we can take our projects to based on Dutch design. I want biking to feel safe, comfortable, and convenient for everyone, regardless of their age or ability,” he says. “Once you’ve experienced something like that and know it’s possible, why would we do it any other way?”

From Town to the Tetons, Jackson Is Best Seen By Bike

Paul Van Dyk was born and raised in Long Beach, California, never living more than a mile outside of the city’s limits. When it came time to attend college — at California State University, Long Beach — he decided to study traffic engineering, driven by a longtime love of cars. Van Dyk was eventually hired on by the Long Beach Public Works Department, where he has worked as an engineer for more than a decade.

“After being tasked with the design of bike facilities, I started riding a bike to and from work and fell in love with the principles of living in a 15-minute city,” says Van Dyk, who was recently promoted to the position of city traffic engineer. “My work is now trying to expand that type of lifestyle to the entire city, so folks can bike or walk to a grocery store or school or the dentist or wherever around town.”

Van Dyk’s conversion from car to bike lover isn’t so surprising — Long Beach has the year-round sunny, warm weather California is known for and there are few things as joyful as riding a bike near the coast. As early as 2012, Van Dyk saw an opportunity to bring bike share to Long Beach to help make bicycling more accessible to visitors and locals alike. While it was still the early days of shared micromobility, the nearby city of Fullerton already had a bike share pilot and Van Dyk and his team took notes with their own system in mind. In 2016, in partnership with CycleHop, the city launched Long Beach Bike Share with 10 stations and 100 bikes. 

About a year and a half later, seeking more unilateral control over the program, the city took ownership of the operation of the bike share system. Since August 2017, the city has owned and operated the program with the assistance of Pedal Movement, a Long Beach-based operator that oversees maintenance and rebalancing services for the pedal-powered system. Under this operational model, Long Beach Bike Share has expanded considerably, refurbishing more than 500 bikes from now-defunct systems and more than doubling its fleet size and geographic reach. 

“The bike share system has been complimentary to our rollout of infrastructure — they leverage one another,” says Van Dyk. “If we're trying to promote our bike share hubs somewhere, we'd better make sure that we have a bike boulevard or protected bikeway that gets people to that ultimate destination.”

For example, the rollout of bike share at Cal State Long Beach wouldn't have been possible without protected bike lanes on the campus arterials and bike boulevard projects that move folks from downtown to campus safely. Since the city oversees bike share as a public service, its integration with safe places to ride just makes sense. It also means that as bike share has expanded outside of the more tourist-heavy parts of the city, infrastructure has too. 

When Long Beach Bike Share was first deployed, it was primarily concentrated mostly in the southern half of the city, an area that includes the downtown core, coastline, and access to the local light rail. In the last few years, however, city planners have shifted their focus to making bike share a primary commute option that equitably serves all community members. That means expanding the system’s footprint into the more underserved area of North Long Beach and Central Long Beach.

“Having now deployed throughout the city, we are analyzing the gaps in our network in order to better serve disadvantaged communities,” says Van Dyk, explaining that in places without sufficient sidewalks, that might mean adding in-street docking stations. “In the past, we’ve been limited to places with park space, so we’re moving now towards an in-street paradigm which gives us more flexibility.”

As a way to complement the system expansion and grow use among low-income residents, the city recently launched Bike Share For All. The program, which is funded through the Long Beach Recovery Act, provides qualifying applicants with $5/year memberships, which include up to three hours of ride time each day (a standard annual membership costs $15/month or $120/year and includes 90 minutes of daily ride time). 

To qualify, applicants must provide proof of enrollment in one of 16 various local, state, or federal assistance programs, which include food assistance, state financial aid for students, and veterans benefits. Interested community members can sign up online or in person and are able to pay in cash. Members without smartphones can also receive a tap card to unlock bikes, available upon request during the application process.

As part of a larger effort to break down barriers to use, Long Beach Bike Share has removed out-of-hub parking fees for mid-trip stops. For example, if you check out a bike from a hub, go to the grocery store, and then return the bike to a hub at the end, you won’t be charged. Additionally, Bike Share for All members will receive a warning call before they’re ever fined.

“Our libraries don't collect fines and we really wanted to adopt a more user-friendly model for bike share, similar to a library,” says Van Dyk. “I really consider these bikes to be a public amenity, almost like a book we want people to lend back and forth.”

Inspired by low-income bike share programs in Philadelphia and New York City, Long Beach’s main concern when designing Bike Share For All was to make sure the cost was affordable and that everyone could use it. While marketing materials are already available in the city’s four most common languages — English, Spanish, Khmer, and Tagalog — Van Dyk says that the plan is to conduct more targeted community outreach around Bike Share For All in the upcoming year. 

“We plan to build relationships in the year to come, partnering with local community organizations that connect us to those who would benefit the most,” says Van Dyk, adding that a collaborative advocacy environment is also crucial when it comes to implementing bike infrastructure. “We also have a youth climate core intern on staff and he'll be deployed as a Bike Share For All ambassador this summer, performing some in-person engagement throughout the city.”

Long Beach city staff has found that whenever they do conduct community outreach, people consistently ask for the same thing: More protected bike lanes. The city has responded with an ambitious Bicycle Master Plan, which by 2040 will bring an all-ages and abilities network to every Long Beach neighborhood. Once completed, Long Beach will be one of the safest bicycling cities in America, with protected bike facilities on every single one of its arterial streets.

The challenge thus far has been balancing that vision with other priorities, including rail and pedestrian amenities. This year, the city is taking yet another step in the right direction by creating its own Street Design Guide for engineers. The goal of the design guide is to connect all relevant departments around a shared vision that ties into the city’s Bike Master Plan, Vision Zero work, and sustainability commitments. So every time a road is repaved, planners will have to account for a variety of considerations from what species of trees to include to where a bike share hub will go. 

“We’re equipping our staff, whether they’re engineers, planners, or interns, to have a street design guide that lays out all of these considerations,” says Van Dyk, adding that engineers especially need a toolbook to draw from. “We’re overhauling our project implementation to put people first and create more opportunities for 15-minute lifestyles.”

Long Beach’s City Ratings score hovers in the 30s, a ways off from a score of 50, the benchmark for safe, convenient places to bike. Still, the city is committed to making bicycling safe, convenient, and accessible for all. Crucially, there’s also political will amongst Long Beach’s electeds, including a city council that wants to see 30% bicycle mode share by 2040 and Vision Zero in a decade. At the national level, Rep. Robert Garcia, a California Democrat and the former mayor of Long Beach, introduced a bill that would eliminate parking minimums, a crucial step in creating better cities for bicycling. 

Currently, Long Beach offers more than 150 miles of bike paths, bicycle boulevards, and separated bike lanes, about 50% of the 300 miles the Bike Master Plan calls for. While there’s a lot of work ahead, the city is well-positioned to see it through. Indispensable to meeting its goal is Long Beach Bike Share, which will not only make bicycling an option for casual cyclists or those with limited means but will help spread the gospel of bicycling by making it ubiquitous on city streets.

“Over the past few decades, it's been easy to be in a bubble, whether it's inside of your personal vehicle or in a social media space — bikes are such a great antidote to that,” says Van Dyk. “Bicycles humanize a city and make it a place of community, where you can turn your head and greet a person, engaging with the city at that tactile level. That's something that we just really want to share with people.” 

Bike Share Boosts Long Beach's Bikeability for All

If you’ve ever attended a town hall meeting to support a proposed bike lane or trail, or simply engaged in a lively discussion about one on Nextdoor, you know it can often be a pretty frustrating process. These days, when discussing anything that involves growth or change, there’s almost always a small, vocal contingent that relies on emotion to argue why something shouldn’t happen. You might know a new bike lane — or another proposed project, like a housing bill that indirectly affects bicycling — would be a good thing for your community, but without data or research to back up your argument, speaking up can feel like a lost cause. 

That’s where our new guide comes in. At PeopleForBikes, we spend our days firmly entrenched in the research and data that supports building better communities for bicycling. We developed this 15-point fact sheet to help counteract misconceptions that often arise when advocating for change, as well as to promote strategies we know work. Bookmark it, print it out, and email it to everyone you know — let this article support you in shifting the larger conversation around the power of bicycling.

This might feel like a given, but if Utah Senator Mitt Romney’s recent remarks are any indication, we’re not all on the same page about the climate benefits of getting more people on bikes. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), transportation makes up 28% of the total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, with 57% of those emissions coming from passenger vehicles. When we build more (and better) bike lanes, the environmental benefits are clear: higher bike ridership, less driving, and an overall reduction in emissions.

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon found that “if even 10% of short car trips during peak afternoon travel were replaced with micromobility, more than 4,800 car trips would not happen, decreasing vehicle miles traveled by more than 7,300 miles a day.” While this would translate to a 2.76% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, it would only be possible with “wide-scale bike lane deployment.” This study confirms similar findings from McGill University that spotlight bike infrastructure in Montreal, as well as research from the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy, which found new bike lanes lowered emissions in Guangzhou, China, and Bogota, Colombia.

According to another European study, if 10% of the population were to replace one car trip a day with a bike ride, overall carbon emissions from transportation would also drop 10%. Research done by Portland State University showed that if 15% of car trips were instead taken by electric bicycle, we could see a 12% decrease in transportation-related emissions. Add in the fact that bikes are one of the lowest carbon-emitting modes of transportation, and it's safe to say that any way you look at it, bicycling benefits the environment.

Ask most people why they don’t bike and they’ll likely name safety as a key concern. A nationwide survey from the National Institute for Transportation and Communities found that a whopping two-thirds of U.S. residents would be more likely to bike if they were separated from cars by a physical barrier. There is so much research that shows people will bike if cities build good infrastructure. Overall, the average protected bike lane sees bike counts increase 75% in its first year alone.

Notably, bicycling in Sevilla, Spain, increased 435% when the city added 86 miles of dedicated bike lanes. Even smaller transformations to include protected bike infrastructure can have a huge impact. After buffered bike lanes were installed on Philadelphia's Spruce and Pine streets, bike traffic increased 95%, while intersections in Montreal with protected bike lanes saw 61% more bike traffic than comparable intersections with no bike infrastructure. There’s also evidence that protected bike lanes are better for bike share.

In Cambridge, Massachusetts, a 2022 upgrade brought a two-way protected bike lane to a section of Garden Street, where before there had only been sharrows and door-zone bike lanes. The changes transformed the entire neighborhood: Bike mode-share nearly quadrupled and increased by more than 2%. Even accounting for seasonal dips in ridership, bicycling in the area increased more than sixfold since the separated bike lanes were built.

3. Yes, protected bike lanes are better than sharrows or standard bike lanes

As a rule of thumb, if something’s not going to be comfortable for people of all ages and abilities to ride, then don’t build it.

For decades, U.S. traffic engineers assumed that people on bikes could almost always share the road with cars. But a shoulder — even a striped bike lane — on a street with fast traffic isn’t an appealing place to bike for most people, especially women and less experienced riders. Putting a bike symbol in the middle of a busy thoroughfare does little to make it a place where parents feel comfortable riding with their children.

We now know, based on both U.S. and international experience, what kind of infrastructure designs give people of all ages and abilities the sense of safety, comfort, and enjoyment that makes them want to ride. This includes protected bike lanes, which are located next to the road and physically separated from traffic, as well as things like better lighting, traffic-calming barriers, and well-marked crosswalks. While sharrows might have a place in small towns or on low-stress streets, protected bike lanes should be the default for roadways with speeds above 25 mph or when vehicular volumes exceed 6,000 average daily traffic (ADT).

People living in bike-friendly communities tend to have better health outcomes due to increased physical activity, improved cardiovascular health, and reduced stress levels. A 2015 Columbia University study showed that New York City's $10 million investment in bike and pedestrian improvements resulted in an estimated societal health savings benefit of $230 million. Put another way, every $1,300 New York City invested in building bike lanes provided benefits equivalent to one additional year of life at full health over the lifetime of all city residents. 

According to the British Medical Journal, regular bicycling is associated with a 41% decrease in the risk of death from any cause, a 45% decrease in the risk of cancer, and a 46% decrease in the risk of heart disease. And the benefits don’t stop there: a PLOS Medicine study showed that people who began bicycling regularly after age 50 saw a 20% decrease in the risk of Type II Diabetes. 

5. Bikes lanes and trails are good for business

In response to proposed or newly built bike lanes, it seems like store owners often complain about reduced parking and customers lost. All of the evidence, however, points to the fact that installing protected bike routes tends to boost local shops. For example, after a hugely contested bike lane was installed on Skillman Avenue in Queens, New York, data shows that sales in the stores, bars, and restaurants on the seven-block commercial stretch collectively rose by 12%.

Other streets in New York have seen similar results: After the construction of a protected bike lane on 9th Avenue in Manhattan, local businesses saw a 49% increase in retail sales (on other streets in the borough, the average was only 3%) and a redesign of the city’s Union Square to include a protected bike lane resulted in 49% fewer commercial vacancies, compared to 5% more throughout Manhattan. And it’s not just in New York: In Salt Lake City's Broadway, replacing parking with protected bike lanes increased retail sales. 

There’s also evidence that customers who arrive at retail stores by bike spend the same amount per month compared to people who arrive by car — they tend to make smaller purchases but return more frequently. What’s more, neighborhoods that don’t require a car to move around are more economically resilient. Bike trails and greenways also benefit communities economically by attracting visitors, promoting job growth in tourism-related industries, and revitalizing communities through the "Trail Town" model and Trail-Oriented Development.

6. More bike infrastructure can benefit drivers, too

It’s important to remember that even if the infrastructure is perfect, not everyone will choose to bike. Die-hard drivers can still become bike advocates, however, especially when they realize that the more people ride bikes, the less car congestion there is. 

This was a key messaging point in Austin, where the city completed 115 miles of new bike lanes in just two years. By shifting traffic from cars to bikes and making it easier to reach transit stops, Austin's planned 400-mile protected bike lane network is projected to increase the city's traffic capacity by about 25,000 trips per day at about the same cost ratio as a single expressway widening.

In 2014, a New York City Department of Transportation (NYDOT) study found that after a six-foot buffered bike lane was installed on Columbus Avenue, car volumes were unaffected and that those cars moved 35% faster. According to an NYDOT statement, the “study found that on corridors with protected bike lanes traffic flow was maintained or improved on average because of the enhanced organization of the roadway.”

7. Protected bike lanes and reduced speeds save lives

Time and again, we see that when speed limits fall, safety rises. Because the likelihood of fatality increases exponentially with vehicle speed, even small reductions in speed limits can have an outsized effect. The Highway Safety Manual shows that deadly crashes can be decreased by 17% if speeds are reduced by just 1 mph, while a separate study from Sweden's Lund Institute of Technology found that a 10% reduction in average speed led to 34% fewer fatal crashes. (As an added bonus, there's evidence that lower speed limits improve air quality.)

A widely celebrated success story comes from Spain: When the speed limit on single-lane urban roads was lowered to 18.5 mph, road deaths fell by 14%. For cyclists, deaths were cut almost in half. This is good news as cities nationwide lower speed limits across the board, making streets safer for everyone. 

The even better news? Protected bike lanes reduce speeding and make streets safer for people walking, biking, and driving. After protected bike lanes were installed in New York City, injuries for all road users on those streets were reduced by 40-50%. Similarly, protected bike lanes in Montreal led to a 28% decrease in injuries. This 2019 study of twelve cities also found that protected bike lanes decrease fatalities for all road users. 

8. Bikes help reduce the cost of living and make cities more affordable

In 2021, U.S. households spent an average of $10,961 on transportation, making it the second largest household expense after housing. One in four U.S. adults suffers from transportation insecurity, a phenomenon that often has an inequitable impact on low-income families. Increasing access to low-cost modes of transportation like bikes — and safe places to ride them — effectively reduces this often-overlooked household expense and ensures communities remain affordable for everyone. The Housing and Transportation (H+T®) Affordability Index is a great tool to determine the neighborhood-level housing and transportation costs for your community. 

9. Housing policy and bike policy are intertwined

The right kind of housing policy can make our communities more bike-friendly. When we create transit-oriented neighborhoods, remove parking requirements, allow for more infill housing in existing urban areas, and permit the building of accessory dwelling units and multi-family housing, we naturally start to create places where destinations are closer together and people feel more comfortable biking.

The U.S. is in the midst of a severe housing crisis, forcing residents to live increasingly far away from important destinations. Adopting climate-friendly land use policies promotes a mix of land uses in close proximity to one another. When people’s homes are closer to their basic needs — jobs, grocery stores, schools, pharmacies, etc. — they’re more likely to ride a bike for daily trips. For those who drive, trips are considerably shorter.

10. Parking reform is key to building bike-friendly cities

The U.S. has about 2 billion parking spots, which translates to about seven parking spaces for every car. And parking is expensive for new developers to build — it can cost between $40,000 and $60,000 per parking space — increasing housing costs for everyone and taking valuable space away from development.

What’s more, fewer homes have led to a slew of other intersecting issues: a nationwide housing shortage, an increase in home prices, and growing inequity. Lower-income families who drive less and use transit more inevitably end up paying for infrastructure they don’t need while drivers are subsidized for their car use. 

When parking is required, buildings are forced to spread further and further apart, decreasing an area’s walkability and leading to urban sprawl, which swallows more and more land to sustain the same population. This in turn pushes people to drive more, upping greenhouse gas emissions, while the ensuing traffic makes it harder for everyone to get where they need to go. 

Essentially, this plethora of free car storage is at the root of a number of societal woes. A much better investment is a network of protected bike lanes and trails. Less parking means more proximity — since most people only want to bike one or two miles, the more destinations you have in that radius, the better a place becomes for bicycling. That’s only possible, however, if you’re not required to build big parking lots. Thus, parking reform is key to building bike-friendly cities.

While the federal government currently offers a federal tax credit for electric cars of up to $7,500, nothing similar exists for people buying an electric bike. With a lack of federal initiative, more and more states, counties, and cities across the country are taking matters into their own hands, creating e-bike incentive programs that are as varied in substance as they are geographically. While many programs are relatively new, the data is compelling. 

Launched in the spring of 2022, Denver’s incredibly popular e-bike incentive program has led to some notable results, including $1 million in cumulative annual savings for the city. Researchers also calculated that the program avoided considerable amounts of greenhouse gas emissions, with some 71% of survey respondents claiming to use their gas-powered vehicles less often (those surveyed rode their e-bikes an average of 26 miles per week, replacing 3.4 round trip vehicle trips). Importantly, 29% of Denver e-bike redeemers who completed the program survey indicated they were also new to riding.

12. Shared micromobility is a good investment for cities

Bike and scooter share, known collectively as shared micromobility, is a good investment for cities. When shared micromobility is done equitably, it can help alleviate transportation insecurity and lead to better public health, environmental, and economic outcomes. Unfortunately, not nearly enough municipalities treat shared micromobility as an integral part of their transit landscape or fund it accordingly. That’s a huge miss.

A 2021 study found that bike share systems are a boon for public health, saving the U.S. healthcare system more than $36 million a year on average. Another research paper from that same year looked at New York’s Citi Bike and found that the system — the largest in the U.S. — is a net win for the climate. In Britain, a more recent study found that if one-fifth of car trips were taken by shared electric bikes or scooters, the result would be a more than $1.2 billion boost to the economy.

On paper, many bicycle laws — such as those that require people to wear helmets, use bike lights, obtain a bike license or register their bikes — seem like a great idea. After all, helmets can protect our heads in the case of a crash, lights help bikers see and be seen, bike licenses can raise money for infrastructure, and bike registrations safeguard people against theft. At least that’s all true in theory. In reality, these laws are virtually unknown and rarely enforced. When they do get enforced, it’s usually to the detriment of Black, Indigenous, or people of color (BIPOC) or those experiencing homelessness.

A report from Equitable Cities outlines how prevalent these transportation laws are in the U.S. In addition to the obvious trauma that can make even the most essential trip to the grocery store a fraught affair, these policies limit mobility, opportunity, and access for BIPOC. They also have implications beyond mobility, contributing to adverse social, political, economic, environmental, and health outcomes. There’s also evidence that repealing laws doesn’t have negative effects: A 2023 study also found that after a helmet law was abolished in Seattle, helmet use actually increased.

14. Bicycling is really good for our youth

There are obvious reasons why any bike advocate would want to see more kids on bikes, including the fact that youth are our cities’ future riders and the next generation of community leaders. What’s less often talked about are the holistic health benefits bicycling offers our children. Aside from the obvious physical benefits of increased activity, youths who engage in regular physical activity report fewer depression and anxiety symptoms, have higher self-esteem, and also perform better academically than kids who are inactive. Additionally, Outride’s “Riding for Friends, Fun, and Fitness” report highlights how youth who ride regularly report higher levels of mental well-being and spend fewer hours in front of screens. 

Don’t always focus on bikes — in fact, if you can manage it, your messaging should focus on the benefits to everyone rather than just people riding bikes. This may seem antithetical to the goal of getting more people riding but research bears out this messaging strategy. Make a point to talk about how bicycling infrastructure improves the lives of all, whether or not people choose to bike, by increasing opportunity, relieving congestion, and growing the economy through recreation improvements. 

When discussing bicycle infrastructure, dwell less on the cyclists and instead focus on how infrastructure can help make streets safer for everyone, benefit people’s health, and provide crucial transportation access to jobs and essential services. Your messaging around bikes should always focus on bringing people together and turning drivers into supporters. 

As the leaders in the fight for building better communities, the responsibility for messaging falls on us. To win over diverse groups and achieve a bike-forward agenda, we need to shift the conversation.

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