Bicycling magazine ranked Portland the third best city for bicycling in its 2016 Best Bike Cities list released on Monday.
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Cities were judged by their population, bicycle facilities, their bicycling-friendly business score, people per bike-share bikes and their median home value.
Chicago ranked number one, with San Francisco coming in at number two.
To generate its biennial ranking of the 50 best biking cities, the national magazine analyzes data from 100 USA cities, such as bike fatalities, safety and people per bike share. Bicycling magazine said Chicago has shown strong efforts to improve and invest in cycling for all parts of the city.
The magazine pointed to the city’s growing network of protected bike lanes, and its expansion of the Divvy bike sharing program into lower income neighborhoods on the South and West sides.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel accepted the award in a ceremony this morning on The 606. According to StreetsBlog Chicago, four bicyclist fatalities have occurred in 2016 thus far-a number that isn’t necessarily above average but is still a tragic statistic.
Still, they noted that Boston has some big projects coming along that may prove a big boon to cyclists, including the Connect Historic Boston initiative, which aims to make walking and biking downtown and around historic sites easier.
“These and other developments would not have happened without a highly engaged advocacy community, an enthusiastic department of transportation and a keenly supportive mayor”, a statement sent to reporters from Ron Burke, ATA’s executive director, said.
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Two years ago it was NYC nabbing the title. After commuting primarily by bike for years in NY and Chicago, I found that it wasn’t always about the infrastructure-Manhattan’s severe traffic congestion at all hours, coupled with the endless stream of taxis darting out from pretty much everywhere, made biking around the city center a harrowing experience, even with the protected bike lanes.
