Detroit Still Among Worst For Bikes
DETROIT (PATCH)— Detroit is among the worst places in America for biking, according to the nonprofit group PeopleForBikes, which published its 2019 nationwide city ratings Sunday. The group used a scoring system to evaluate cities based on five key areas: ridership, safety, network, acceleration and reach.
The report gave Detroit only 1.6 out of five stars. Here's the breakdown:
- Ridership: 1.7
- Safety: 1.3
- Network: 2.1
- Reach: 2.3
- Acceleration: 0.7
Colorado is home to the two best cities for biking, the report found. With scores of 3.74 and 3.64 out of five, Boulder and Fort Collins outpaced the rest of the country. Here are the 10 best cities for biking and their scores:
- Boulder, CO — 3.7
- Fort Collins, CO — 3.6
- Eugene, OR — 3.4
- Manhattan, NY — 3.4
- Arlington, VA — 3.4
- Portland, OR — 3.3
- Brooklyn, NY — 3.3
- Lawrence, KS — 3.3
- Minneapolis, MN — 3.2
- Madison, WI — 3.2
Conversely, two cities — Pittsford, New York, and Cochituate, Massachusetts — tied for the lowest score, the report found, though sufficient data wasn't available for three categories in both cities.
Overall, the share of commuters who bike to work fell 4.7 percent year-over-year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2017 single-year commuting estimates in the American Community Survey. Furthermore, 37 of the 70 largest cities also saw a year-over-year decrease in the share of biking commuters, according to the League of American Bicyclists.
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