Every year, PeopleForBikes' City Ratings evaluates how effectively communities connect people to the places they want to go by bike. Access to jobs, healthcare, shopping, recreation, transit, and education all play a role in determining how well a city’s bike network serves the people who rely on it.

However, one destination category stands out from the rest: schools.

At first glance, school access may seem like just another metric within the Bicycle Network Analysis, the data model that powers City Ratings. But it might be one of the most important indicators of a community's long-term bicycling success.

Why? Because a city where a child can safely ride to school is doing more than connecting students to a classroom. It's creating opportunities for independence, physical activity, and lifelong riding habits. In many ways, it is investing in the future of bicycling itself.

Research consistently shows that people are more likely to ride when safe, connected infrastructure exists close to home. By connecting schools to neighborhoods through low-stress bike networks, cities create opportunities for young people to experience transportation independence at an early age. Those experiences can then set the stage for a lifetime of healthy bicycling habits while also making riding more visible and normal for the broader community. 

PeopleForBikes has seen firsthand the impact communities experience when young people have more opportunities to ride bikes. As the convener of the Youth Cycling Coalition (YCC), PeopleForBikes collaborates with national youth organizations working every day to help young people discover the benefits of bicycling. From learn-to-ride programs and bike buses to school-based mountain bike teams and after-school clubs, these organizations are helping kids build confidence, develop skills, and find joy through the bicycle.

But even the best youth programs depend on a larger community ecosystem. 

“The cool thing about bike buses is that they don’t require perfect city infrastructure,” said Sam Balto, founder of Bike Bus World. “But it’s evident that communities with better bicycling infrastructure see higher rates of rider retention after the coordinated event concludes because there are safe places to continue riding your bike.”

That is why City Ratings and the Bicycle Network Analysis are so valuable. They give communities a clear picture of where safe, connected bike networks exist today and where improvements will make the biggest difference. PeopleForBikes encourages everyone to learn more about their city’s score and use that information to start conversations with local leaders about improving access to schools by bike. 

How to see the connectivity of neighborhoods surrounding local schools:

Under the “Stress Network” dropdown, click “Census Blocks by BNA Score” then “Apply”

Under the “Destinations” dropdown, click “Schools” then “Apply”

Identify your local city administrator and/or planning director 

Ask how school connectivity fits into your city’s comprehensive plan 

Encourage local leaders and elected officials to prioritize low-stress bike routes that connect neighborhoods to schools and other everyday destinations.

The future of bicycling starts with the next generation of riders. One of the best ways to support those riders, and the future of bicycling, is by ensuring they can safely reach one of the most important destinations in their lives — school.

Why the Ride to School Matters More Than You Think

The West Hollywood Bicycle Coalition celebrates Bike Week in collaboration with the City of West Hollywood and BikeLA.

West Hollywood might not be the first place that comes to mind when many people think of great American bike cities. It sits inside one of the most car-dominant metro areas in the world, covers less than 2 square miles, and is surrounded on three sides by Los Angeles — a city which, as Kevin Burton puts it, "is the most challenging urban environment for bicycling I've encountered."

But West Hollywood is changing. In PeopleForBikes' 2026 City Ratings, the city earned a score of 37 out of 100 and a spot on our list of 8 Cities to Watch. Behind that number is a story of persistent local advocacy, an energized city council, and a committed strategy for building a bike network that actually connects people with where they need to go.

Burton is the co-founder of the West Hollywood Bicycle Coalition (WeHoBYCO), a community-based advocacy group that has spent years pushing the city to follow through on plans that were, as Burton describes it, "gathering dust on the shelf." We sat down with him to learn what's working and what other cities can learn from the WeHo model.

In April 2025, the West Hollywood City Council unanimously voted to build only protected bike infrastructure on future street projects, making it the first city in the Los Angeles area to make that commitment.

The policy includes a "where feasible" qualifier — protected lanes require an extra 3 to 5 feet of street width minimum, making them impossible on some narrower roads — but Burton is clear that the council's intent is to build protected lanes wherever it can.

"The council is very supportive of doing protected bike lanes where at all possible," Burton says. "But it's not an absolute mandate."

Getting to that vote took years of coalition work: attending city meetings, leading rides with council members, stopping to point out existing and planned lanes, and explaining the safety case for protection — not just for riders, but also for drivers, who cross paths with cyclists less frequently when lanes are physically separated.

One of West Hollywood's most important strategic choices has been to think beyond its own city limits. Surrounded by Los Angeles on three sides and Beverly Hills on the fourth, the city has designed its bike infrastructure specifically to connect with neighboring networks.

"It's a very important consideration for us to build out a network, not only within West Hollywood, but connecting to our neighboring cities," Burton says. "We point this out whenever we're advocating for new bike lanes."

That philosophy is showing up in project design. A new protected lane connecting WeHo with Beverly Hills is being designed to match the green lane treatment already in place on the Beverly Hills side. Plus, virtually every existing and planned WeHo bike lane connects to a corresponding lane in Los Angeles.

This is foundational to how we think about bike networks at PeopleForBikes: a great lane that ends at a city boundary isn't nearly as useful as one that takes you where you need to go. West Hollywood gets that.

What's Coming: Greenways, Road Diets, and the Olympics

West Hollywood has a pipeline of projects that will define how its City Ratings score moves over the next few years.

The Fountain Avenue Streetscape Project is the most ambitious. The city approved a road diet on Fountain Avenue that reduces travel from two lanes to one in each direction to make room for protected bike lanes, wider sidewalks, and new landscaping. Phase 1 construction is anticipated for fall 2026.

The data behind the project is compelling: Of the almost 35,000 cars that travel along Fountain Avenue on a typical day, only 13,000 (36%) have an origin or destination in West Hollywood, meaning a majority of commuters are just passing through The road diet is designed to reclaim that street for the people who actually live there.

A greenway project on a collector street along the city's western edge will install traffic-calming infrastructure — median islands, traffic circles, and diverters — to slow vehicle speeds on a route widely used by cyclists. Critically, all traffic signals on the route will be upgraded to detect bicycles, eliminating the need for riders to dismount to trigger a pedestrian crossing signal. Burton calls that detail essential: "If you want to make it friendly to bicyclists, that matters."

The 2028 LA Olympics is adding urgency to the regional picture. West Hollywood is supporting a dedicated bus and bike lane along one of its major thoroughfares — part of a multi-city route — timed to be completed before the Games. A Beverly Hills connector lane is also in play. With millions of visitors expected and parking already near-impossible in the area, moving people without cars isn't just a policy goal, it's a practical necessity.

Burton has spent years working the levers of local government, and he has actionable advice for advocates trying to move their own city councils in the right direction.

Frame biking as part of a transportation system, not a standalone mode. The argument that resonates, Burton says, is the first- and last-mile problem: most people will never bike exclusively, but millions would bike more if it connected reliably to transit. In Los Angeles, every bus has a rack on the front. Every light rail and subway car allows bikes. Full-size commuter rail even has dedicated bike storage cars. "The thinking should be broader than just bicycling," Burton says. "It's transportation."

Show up where decisions are made. Before WeHoBYCO existed, there was no organized voice for biking at city meetings. Showing up consistently — commenting on projects, asking questions, building relationships with supportive council members — is what moved the needle. "Before us, there wasn't any organized effort to do that," Burton says.

Engage in elections. Bike-friendly policy requires bike-friendly leaders. WeHoBYCO, as a 501(c)(3), can educate voters about candidates' positions without endorsing them. Other advocacy organizations without that constraint can go further. Either way, Burton’s lesson is clear: "Support candidates who support bicycling and its connection to public transportation."

Take the hassle out of parking. In dense, visitor-heavy cities, a relatable pitch for biking is avoiding the frustrating search for a parking spot. "That's one of the great advantages of bicycling and public transportation: avoiding the continual battle to find parking places," Burton says. It's an argument that lands with drivers just as much as cyclists.

With a City Ratings score of 37 out of 100, West Hollywood still has real ground to cover. But the ingredients for sustained improvement are in place: a coalition that shows up, a council majority that's willing to act, a pipeline of concrete projects, and a strategic approach to connectivity that extends beyond city limits.

In a region better known for its freeways than its bike lanes, that kind of steady, systematic progress is exactly what’s going to make a difference for better biking.

Interested in improving biking in your community? Explore the 2026 City Ratings to see how your city scores — and what moves the needle.

What Other Cities Can Learn From West Hollywood’s Approach to Better Biking

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

Topics

Bike Networks

PeopleForBikes at Work on Bike Networks

News

Why the Ride to School Matters More Than You Think

What Other Cities Can Learn From West Hollywood’s Approach to Better Biking

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