Bentonville has long been known as one of America's premier biking destinations. Home to an extensive network of off-road trails, a thriving cycling culture, and a deep commitment to outdoor recreation, Bentonville — and the broader Northwest Arkansas region — are well established as a national hub for recreational riding.

Now, Bentonville is earning recognition for a different kind of investment in great biking.

In PeopleForBikes’ 2026 City Ratings, Bentonville earned a score of 50 — landing itself as the highest-scoring city in Arkansas and among the top 6% of medium-sized cities nationwide. More importantly, the score reflects a community where a growing number of residents can safely and easily reach everyday destinations using a connected, low-stress bike network.

For PeopleForBikes, a score of 50 represents an important milestone and tipping point. It signals that biking is becoming a practical transportation option for a meaningful share of residents — not just a recreational activity.

Bentonville's success did not happen overnight.

The city's early investments in mountain biking and soft-surface trails helped create a strong biking culture and put Bentonville on the map as a recreational riding destination. But as the community grew, so did its ambitions.

The focus shifted from simply creating great places to ride to creating an environment that enables people to ride more often in their daily lives. City leaders, planners, advocates, and residents began building a network that safely connected neighborhoods to schools, businesses, parks, and other everyday destinations.

That long-term commitment is reflected in Bentonville's steady rise in City Ratings. In 2018, Bentonville earned a score of 27. Today's impressive score of 50 shows what can happen when a community rallies behind a plan and sticks with it.

One of the biggest drivers behind Bentonville's progress has been a commitment to connectivity. Great trails matter — but truly great biking communities are built when people can safely and comfortably ride beyond the trailhead.

Over the past several years, Bentonville has focused on closing critical gaps between neighborhoods, downtown, schools, parks, employment centers, and its renowned trail system. Those connections have transformed individual facilities into a citywide transportation network.

More residents can leave home and reach destinations by bike, whether they are commuting to work, meeting friends, running errands, or heading out for a ride. Equally as important for an outdoor tourism destination like Bentonville, visitors can leave the car keys behind and easily access everything the city has to offer on two wheels.

The result of this dedicated investment in connectivity is a community where biking increasingly serves both daily transportation needs alongside great recreational opportunities.

At PeopleForBikes, we know the value of a connected bike network extends far beyond getting people where they need to go.

When more people ride, more people spend time outdoors. More neighbors see one another on streets, trails, and shared spaces. Local businesses benefit from increased activity, and residents gain new opportunities to engage with their community.

Biking helps people experience their city at a human scale. It encourages chance encounters, stronger neighborhood connections, and a greater sense of belonging.

Bentonville’s City Ratings score of 50 is an important milestone — but the real achievement is what it represents: a more connected community.

As Bentonville continues to close gaps and expand its bike network, more residents will have opportunities to get outside, support local businesses, and connect with the people and places that make the city unique.

PeopleForBikes’ 2026 City Ratings evaluates 3,019 U.S. cities on how well their bike networks connect people to everyday destinations. Learn more and see how your city scores at cityratings.peopleforbikes.org.

Bentonville Built a Bike Town, Now It's Building a Bike Network

Home to nearly 90 miles of trails and more than 260 miles of bikeways, Minneapolis has built one of the country's most connected bike networks, making it easy for residents to reach everyday destinations without getting behind the wheel.

For those of us who call the Heartland home, the PeopleForBikes’ 2026 City Ratings tell a familiar story.

Our communities might not have the largest populations, the biggest transportation budgets, or the highest density. But year after year, cities across the middle of the country keep proving that great places for biking can be built anywhere.

This year's results are especially meaningful because PeopleForBikes introduced a more rigorous methodology — one that places a greater emphasis on network quality, connectivity, and access to destinations. For the Heartland, the results are encouraging.

The Heartland includes Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and Wisconsin.

Connectivity Is Becoming the Heartland's Strength

The highest-performing cities aren't simply building more trails or adding more bike lanes. They're creating networks that link neighborhoods to schools, downtowns to business districts, and homes to everyday destinations — making it safer and easier for people to choose a bike for short trips, daily errands, and commuting.

A City Ratings score of 50 represents an important milestone. Communities that reach this threshold have built networks that allow a meaningful share of residents to comfortably access daily destinations by bike — not through standout projects, but through a connected system that works together.

This year's methodology updates make that benchmark even more significant. Top-scoring communities are earning it under a framework that more accurately reflects the quality and usefulness of their networks.

One of this year's most exciting stories comes from Northwest Arkansas. Bentonville reached a City Ratings score of 50 for the first time, reflecting years of investment in connecting neighborhoods, schools, and business districts. Fayetteville followed closely at 49, and Bella Vista climbed the charts as well moving up from 44 in 2025 to 49 in 2026.

Together, these communities illustrate a broader regional trend: cities are moving beyond recreation and focusing on how biking can support everyday life — giving residents more transportation choices, greater access to opportunity, and stronger ties to their communities.

From North Dakota to Louisiana, communities throughout the Heartland are proving that connected transportation networks are built through dedicated local leadership, long-term vision, and a commitment to making communities safer for the people who live there. Those investments strengthen local economies, support healthier lifestyles, and make communities more desirable to live, work, visit, and play.

The Heartland has always excelled at coming together and building the kind of places we want for our families. Increasingly, that includes connected communities where more people can safely and easily choose to get around by bike.

Heartland Communities Continue to Raise the Bar for Better Biking

Our annual City Ratings is a data-driven approach to evaluate, compare, and celebrate the best cities for biking in the U.S. Based on data from PeopleForBikes’ Bicycle Network Analysis (BNA), each city receives a City Ratings score on a scale of 0-100.

A city’s score represents how well its bike network connects people to jobs, schools, healthcare, shopping, recreation, and other everyday destinations. Cities that score 50 or higher typically have connected, low-stress infrastructure — including slow neighborhood streets, off-street bike paths, and protected bike lanes — that provides safe and easy access to the places people need to go.

Of the 3,019 U.S. cities ranked in this year’s ratings, 555 communities scored 50 or higher, a significant jump from the 234 U.S. cities that scored 50+ in 2025. This impressive growth in highly rated cities highlights national momentum for the safe and connected infrastructure that allows more people to choose biking as an easy and accessible option for everyday trips.

Medium U.S. Cities (50,000–300,000 population)

While high scores might get the biggest headlines, some of the most inspiring stories from PeopleForBikes' 2026 City Ratings belong to the cities putting in the work to climb the ranks and improve their scores year after year. We identified eight communities that aren't at the top of the rankings yet, but are investing in the infrastructure, partnerships, and policies that move the needle for making biking safer and more accessible.

Nestled at the foot of Mount Tamalpais — one of the birthplaces of mountain biking — Mill Valley is balancing its off-road cycling heritage with a serious push to make biking an easy and accessible choice for everyday transportation. The city's Transportation Mobility Advisory Committee is applying PeopleForBikes' SPRINT principles to prioritize protected lanes, lower speeds, and improved connectivity, with Miller Avenue serving as a flagship project for the city. A recently updated bike and pedestrian plan and participation in PeopleForBikes' OpenStreetMap mapathon are helping the city track progress and build toward a City Ratings score that truly reflects the community's ambitions. Learn more about how Mill Valley is building a culture of biking.

One of the most ambitious urban redevelopment programs in the U.S., the Atlanta Beltline is a 22-mile urban loop of multi-use trails and greenways connecting 45 neighborhoods across the city. More than just improving bike connectivity, the Beltline represents a historic investment in vibrant public spaces, commerce, and arts and culture for the city of Atlanta. Beyond the Beltline, Atlanta's commitment to improving biking is also reflected in the numerous active projects tracked in PeopleForBikes' Great Bike Infrastructure Project (GBIP), ranging from neighborhood connector trails to new protected facilities across the city and surrounding communities.

An official member city of the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO), Charlotte leverages NACTO's design resources, including the Urban Street Design Guide and Urban Bikeway Design Guide, to advance their vision for a safer, multimodal community. That investment is beginning to pay off in concrete infrastructure improvements — including the Uptown CycleLink, a 7-mile-long network of separated bike lanes that, once complete, will connect more than 40 miles of bikeways across Charlotte. The recent signing of North Carolina's P.A.V.E. Act also opens the door to a countywide transit referendum that could accelerate multimodal investment in the surrounding Mecklenburg County.

A former Big Jump city, Baltimore made the most of its partnership with PeopleForBikes to make meaningful investments in a connected, low-stress bike network — and the work hasn't slowed down since. The city has an active portfolio of projects in our national bike project tracker, with improvements spanning from large, regional greenways to small, local connector trails. Baltimore's score of 46 puts it just within reach of the 50-point threshold of becoming a great place to ride, making it one of the most compelling near-term success stories to follow.

West Hollywood has been making big moves for better biking in recent years. In April 2025, the city council unanimously committed to building only protected bike infrastructure on future street projects — the first city in the Los Angeles area to do so — and followed it up by painting all existing bike lanes green on Fairfax Avenue, San Vicente Boulevard, and Santa Monica Boulevard for improved visibility. With the 2028 LA Olympics on the horizon, West Hollywood's premier location in LA positions it as a key corridor for the broader active transportation push underway across Los Angeles ahead of the Games.

Tampa is nearing the finish line on a bike infrastructure project nearly a decade in the making. The Green Spine Cycle Track — an east-west protected bikeway running through downtown, Ybor City, and East Tampa — is in its final construction phase, with the completed 3.4-mile route expected to wrap by late summer 2026. Funded primarily through federal grants, the Green Spine features raised concrete dividers separating cyclists from traffic and will connect to the Tampa Riverwalk and link neighborhoods across the city.

Nebraska's capital city has slowly built one of the most impressive trail networks in the Great Plains, and its 130-plus miles of trails and bike lanes now anchor a system that the American Planning Association recognized as one of the Great Public Spaces in America. The centerpiece of Lincoln's push for better biking is the N Street Protected Bikeway — Nebraska's first protected bikeway — which connected the city's trail network to the Haymarket district, Pinnacle Bank Arena, and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus. That investment sparked a broader build-out, with our national bike project tracker reflecting active and completed projects across the city, including the Fletcher Landmark Trail, Chris Beutler Trail, and a critical hike-bike trail connection that will link Omaha and Lincoln.

As Montana's largest city, local advocates and city planners in Billings are working to ensure that quality biking keeps pace with recent population growth. Local nonprofit Billings TrailNet has been a driving force behind infrastructure expansion, with a goal of making active transportation and recreation an integral part of everyday life in the city. Active and recently completed projects include the Stage Coach Trail, Skyway Drive, Marathon Loop, North 31st Street, and 3rd Avenue North — investments that are steadily expanding access for residents and visitors across the city.

8 Cities to Watch in PeopleForBikes’ 2026 City Ratings

Now in its ninth year, PeopleForBikes’ annual City Ratings takes a data-driven look at bikeability in more than 3,000 cities across the U.S. Scores are generated using the Bicycle Network Analysis (BNA), which measures how easily people can reach everyday destinations such as jobs, schools, parks, grocery stores, and essential services via connected, safe, and low-stress bike routes.

Cities are scored on a scale of 0–100 and grouped by population size: small (under 50,000), medium (50,000–300,000), and large (more than 300,000). A score of 50 represents a critical tipping point: at that level, a city's low-stress network is connected enough to generate real momentum toward broader bikeability. Updated annually, City Ratings gives city leaders and local advocates a consistent benchmark to track progress and make the case for investment.

The 2026 City Ratings includes some notable methodology updates, incorporating the most up-to-date data, best practices in street design, and feedback from City Ratings users. Some cities may see score changes that reflect the updated methodology rather than recent infrastructure changes, and year-over-year comparisons should be interpreted with that in mind. By introducing these new improvements, PeopleForBikes establishes a consistent baseline from which future annual changes can more reliably reflect real progress on the ground. More detail about these changes can be found in this blog and webinar.

The 2026 City Ratings added nearly 500 new U.S. cities (448 small and 42 medium) for a total of 3,019. A new "other" category captures a subset of small cities that don't meet a set of minimum criteria (500+ residents, 25+ miles of roads, destinations in at least four categories). The 222 cities in this category receive scores but are not included in size-based rankings. Similar to 2025, New York City is split into its five boroughs to better reflect the variation in bike network quality across the city.

Top Cities: Familiar Names and New Arrivals

This year’s top five large U.S. cities are the same as 2025 — Brooklyn (70), Minneapolis (68), Seattle (66), Queens (63), and San Francisco (61), with a few scores dropping slightly due to methodology updates. Milwaukee (57) entered the top 10 this year as the city met its goal to build 50 miles of protected bikeways by 2026. Detroit (55) also entered the top 10 as the city continues to build out the Joe Louis Greenway, a nearly 30-mile route around the city. Similar to last year, all of the top 10 large cities scored above 50, indicating a continued commitment to improving infrastructure in metropolitan areas.

The top 10 medium cities saw significant turnover due to updated guidelines from the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO). Under these guidelines, conventional (paint-only) bike lanes must be on roads with speed limits of 20 mph or lower to be considered low-stress infrastructure. In many medium-sized cities, the speed limits on non-residential roads are higher, and the BNA now considers them high-stress when considering all ages and abilities. 

Hoboken, NJ (83) took over the top spot for medium U.S. cities this year, reflecting the city’s initiatives towards Vision Zero, or the elimination of all traffic related injuries and deaths by 2030. While much of the bike infrastructure is conventional, a citywide speed limit of 20 mph means that most of the roads are low-stress. Many Heartland cities are also in the top 10, bolstered by extensive networks of paved trails running throughout the area, providing low-stress connections and separation from cars.

Mackinac Island, MI, continues to top the small cities with a perfect score of 100, reflecting the absence of cars on the small island. Old Orchard, PA and Crested Butte, CO also reached scores of 100 this year. As with Mackinac, almost every road in these areas is low-stress. In some communities, such as Washburn, WI, a low-stress network in small cities can be achieved due to low speed limits, as opposed to extensive bike infrastructure. In other places, a key piece of infrastructure may help connect an entire city, such as the Cross Island Trail in Kent Narrows, MD, or the Zion Canyon Trail in Springdale, UT.

Despite the stricter requirements for defining low-stress infrastructure, average scores went up significantly across all categories this year. Across all U.S. cities, the average City Ratings score increased from 25 to 36. This increase was reflected across all size categories as well, though less significantly for medium-sized cities. The largest gain came in large cities, where the average score rose 12 points with cities such as Tampa, FL, and Columbus, OH, seeing double-digit increases.

In 2026, 555 cities scored 50 or above, up from 234 in 2025. Of these high-scoring cities, 137 were new to the program, 187 maintained a score of 50+, and 231 cities crossed the tipping point for the first time. 500 are small cities, 44 are medium, and 11 are large.

High-scoring cities tend to exhibit many or all of the components of PeopleForBikes’ SPRINT framework:

Among large cities near or above 50, the default residential speed limit is 25 mph or lower. These high-scoring cities have also implemented many other SPRINT principles such as protected bike lanes and network connectivity, but it’s difficult to get past the 20-point mark with speed limits of 30 mph or higher. For cities with speed limits of 25 mph in the 30–50 score range, working on network connections can make a big difference in getting to that critical score of 50.

Cities with high scores tend to have bike plans in place and are working to build them out. By taking a network approach (vs. focusing on individual projects), resources can be used to strategically fill in gaps or expand the reach of the existing network.

State-level scores also reveal some notable trends. For some states, the average scores differ considerably by size. For example, small cities in Montana, Nevada, and Arizona score much higher than medium cities. Conversely, medium cities in Kansas, North Dakota, and Arkansas score higher than small cities. In Minnesota, the large cities (Minneapolis and St. Paul) outscore both medium and small cities. Texas is consistently low across all categories, though the large city average is boosted by Austin. Regionally, the South scores the lowest, while the Pacific and the Midwest score the highest.

This year’s City Ratings is a celebration of continued progress and an opportunity for growth. In more cities than ever, Americans can reach the places they want to go via low-stress bike rides. For the almost 500 cities that currently fall in the “on the cusp” 40–50 range, applying proven interventions aligned with the SPRINT framework could push a significant number past the tipping point within the next few years. Sustained investment in bike-friendly policies and infrastructure will determine how many of those 500 cities cross the tipping point.

Full rankings and city profiles are available at cityratings.peopleforbikes.org. Maps and data are available at bna.peopleforbikes.org.

Rising Standards, Better Results: U.S. Cities Continue to Improve for Bicycling

Before hosting the 2024 Olympics, Paris rewrote the transportation playbook for host cities. In two years, the French capital added 34 miles of new protected bike routes, created more than 27,000 bike parking spaces, and made all 35 Olympic venues safely accessible by bike, earning the unofficial title of the "first bikeable Olympics." With Los Angeles set to host the 2028 Summer Games — and dozens of North American cities preparing to host matches during the 2026 World Cup and 2031 Women’s World Cup — the U.S. bike industry, local leaders, and advocates have a rare opportunity to use major international events as catalysts for bike improvements that will last long after the final whistle and closing ceremony.

Here's what Paris did, why it worked, and lessons LA and other host cities can follow.

Start With Political Will — Everything Else Follows

Paris didn't become bikeable overnight. The groundwork was laid nearly a decade before the Olympic torch arrived. Mayor Anne Hidalgo launched Plan Vélo in 2015, committing the equivalent of $290 million to expand protected bike lanes citywide. The payoff came quickly: Paris raised bike ridership 54% in a single year, driven almost entirely by new, protected infrastructure.

The Olympics then accelerated what political leadership had already set in motion. Just two years before the opening ceremony, existing routes to venues were unmarked and dangerous and early Olympic planning focused exclusively on buses and rail. Advocates pushed for cycling to be included. City officials listened and moved fast.

The lesson for LA: Lasting transportation improvements require both public support and consistent leadership. LA voters have already signaled their support through a 2024 ballot measure demanding a mobility safety plan, but the city has yet to outline its implementation. Mayor Bass' most recent budget also cut funding to the two agencies responsible for street safety.

The centerpiece of Paris' build was the "olympiste" network — more than 37 miles of permanent, protected paths connecting every competition site. All of it was built to stay. Those new cycle paths brought the total across the Ile-de-France region to more than 400 kilometers of protected lanes. The 10,000 temporary bike racks installed at venues didn't disappear after the closing ceremony, either. They were redistributed to schools, sports centers, and municipal facilities across the city.

This is the contrast with past host cities. Rio de Janeiro rapidly deployed 450 kilometers of bike lanes for the 2016 Games, then let them fall apart from systemic neglect. Beijing built a bike share network for 2008 that gradually declined due to safety, pricing, and policy failures. Event-driven infrastructure that isn't embedded in a city's long-term network doesn't survive.

The lesson for LA: Every lane, every rack, and every bike share dock built for 2028 should be designed as a permanent city asset from day one, not a temporary amenity.

Bike Share + Parking Are Just as Important as the Lanes

Infrastructure is more than pavement. For the Games, Paris expanded its Vélib Métropole bike share fleet by 3,000 bikes to 20,000 total and added 10 new stations. Lime brought an additional 5,000 electric bicycles online, bringing the city's total e-bike share fleet to 15,000. All told, more than 46,000 rental bikes were available during the Games, many of them electric.

Parking also kept pace. More than 3,000 permanent bike rack spaces were installed around the Stade de France before the Games. A solar-covered, high-tech bike parking facility opened at a major train station, and a double-decker rack facility went in at the stadium itself. Paris knew that to get people riding, their entire ride needed to be easy — including the final destination.

The lesson for LA: Protected lanes without abundant, convenient, and secure parking as well as accessible bike share make for an incomplete bike network. The full system has to work together.

The Legacy Is Real, But There Are Still Lessons to Improve On

The numbers from post-Olympic Paris are striking. Cycling now accounts for 11.2% of all trips in Paris, versus just 4.3% by car. This is a remarkable shift from 2010, when bikes represented just 3% of travel.

But recent research adds important nuance. A 2026 study of post-Olympic bike lane utilization found that buffer zones around Olympic routes retained only 26%–59% of their peak Games-era usage. The takeaway isn't that the infrastructure failed — it's that Olympic bike infrastructure must be designed as connective tissue in a citywide low-stress network, not as standalone showcase corridors. Paris's broader network is what's sustaining ridership gains. The olympiste paths work because they connect to everything else.

We've covered the contrast between ambitious commitments and slower-than-hoped execution before. The cities that close that gap are the ones that treat advocacy, political will, and construction as a continuous, coordinated effort — not sequential steps.

Paris had a decade of groundwork before the Olympics arrived. L.A. has less than three years.

The good news: Los Angeles already has a strong network of transportation advocates working to create a safer, more connected bike network. Organizations like Move LA, BikeLA, and ActiveSGV are helping lead the effort locally, creating an opportunity for LA to build on proven strategies while tailoring them to the city's unique needs. They also have an opportunity to learn from groups like Paris en Selle — a key driver of the Paris bike build — who have shared lessons from that success with advocates preparing for the 2028 Olympics. 

Even better, PeopleForBikes is already on the ground in Los Angeles. Through Ride LA Together, we're bringing the U.S. bike industry, national groups, and  local partners together to build the political and public will for quality, lasting bike infrastructure ahead of 2028 and get more people excited about riding bikes more often. Our City Ratings data identifies exactly where LA's low-stress network gaps are most critical — and where Olympic investment would deliver the greatest long-term impact.

PeopleForBikes is rallying support around six key infrastructure projects already in motion across the region.

Festival Trail: The Festival Trail envisions a network of car-free, multi-modal corridors linking Olympic venues, green spaces, and neighborhoods across Los Angeles County. The project also includes Resiliency Hubs along the route — public spaces with shade, water, charging stations, and restrooms — investments that will benefit locals and visitors long after the Games.

LA River Bikeway: Metro's LA River Path project looks to deliver a new protected bike and pedestrian path along a critical transportation corridor — an approximately 8-mile stretch of the Los Angeles River, running from the Valley through Downtown LA and Long Beach.

Rail to River: This 4-mile active transportation connection would link the Metro A Line's Slauson Station to the LA River, running through the Bell, Huntington Park, and Florence-Firestone neighborhoods — communities that are densely populated, transit-dependent, and historically underserved with safe places to bike.

Western Our Way: Between 2010 and 2019, 136 severe and fatal collisions occurred on a 4.5-mile stretch of Western Avenue. This project targets that corridor directly with protected bike lanes, pedestrian safety improvements, and new crossings.

San Gabriel Valley Greenway: The San Gabriel Valley Greenway Network plan would create 130 miles of connected bike paths, trails, and green space across the San Gabriel Valley, built along the region's existing flood control channels and river easements. The project vastly improves Olympic venue access while also delivering on long-term regional connectivity, emissions reduction, and stormwater management goals.

Sunset4All: This community-led campaign looks to bring 3.2 miles of protected bike lanes, pedestrian improvements, trees, and pocket parks to Sunset Boulevard. Sunset4All has identified more than $600 million in eligible grant opportunities by installing protected bike lanes, making it one of the highest leverage projects ahead of 2028.

By 2028, priority bike projects are funded and built, creating connected, low-stress networks that make it safe and easy for more people to bike. With those improved networks, participation grows, with more people biking across LA not just for the Olympics, but for everyday trips for years to come. 

The 2028 Olympic Games are around the corner. Paris showed the world what a city looks like when it chooses to meet the moment. The U.S. bike industry, advocates, and local leaders need to make sure Los Angeles makes the same choice — and makes it now.

Ready to get involved? Reach out to PeopleForBikes at info@peopleforbikes.org to learn more.

What Paris Built for the Olympics Should Be Los Angeles’ Blueprint for 2028

Topics

Bike Networks

PeopleForBikes at Work on Bike Networks

News

Bentonville Built a Bike Town, Now It's Building a Bike Network

Heartland Communities Continue to Raise the Bar for Better Biking

2026’s Best Places to Bike

8 Cities to Watch in PeopleForBikes’ 2026 City Ratings

Rising Standards, Better Results: U.S. Cities Continue to Improve for Bicycling

What Paris Built for the Olympics Should Be Los Angeles’ Blueprint for 2028