A closer look at the approved bike provisions in the Build Back Better Act and the political landscape that can get them signed into law.

An electric bicycle tax credit and a bike commuter benefit are one step closer to reality. On September 15, 2021, the Ways and Means Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives approved a section of the Build Back Better Act aimed at investments in clean energy and green transportation that included these important bike provisions. PeopleForBikes is grateful for the advocacy of the bicycle industry, the support of bike riders across the U.S. and the leadership of certified bike champions in Congress, specifically Representatives Jimmy Panetta (CA-20), Earl Blumenauer (OR-3) and Mike Thompson (CA-5). 

Understanding that carbon emissions from transportation exacerbate the drastic consequences of the climate crisis, focusing on simple solutions like incentivizing Americans to replace driving with biking for short trips is one critical (and low-cost) option on the menu of policy options Congress must consider. 

The approved electric bicycle tax credit looks a lot like the E-BIKE Act that we’ve talked about before, with a few key changes. If signed into law as written in the Build Back Better Act, the tax credit would look like:

A 15% refundable consumer tax credit on the purchase of a qualifying new electric bicycle with a max credit of $750/bike, including phased restrictions on higher-income earners.   

A qualifying new electric bicycle falls within the three class designation system and costs less than $8,000. 

Refundable means that individuals who do not have income to claim on their taxes would still be eligible to receive the credit as a refund. 

Individuals earning less than $73,750 annually ($112,500 for heads of household and $150,000 for married couples filing jointly) are eligible to receive the full credit on the purchase of an electric bicycle when they file their taxes. The credit begins to phase out above those income levels at a rate of $200 per $1,000 of additional income. 

Individuals may claim the credit for one electric bicycle per year (max $750 credit), or two bikes for joint filers (max $1,500 credit).

Supporters who have followed the E-BIKE Act since it was introduced in February will notice that these differences shrink the credit from 30% without income restrictions. As fierce advocates for the original bill, we acknowledge that a lesser credit isn’t ideal, but we still celebrate the fact that a brand new tax credit for electric bicycles made it this far. We’ll continue to fight for the most effective policy available while working within the political reality. 

The bike commuter benefit included in the Build Back Better Act mirrors the Bicycle Commuter Act of 2021, meaning commuters could receive $81/month (adjusted for inflation) as a pre-tax benefit for biking to work. This could be used in harmony with parking and transit benefits, and would cover costs associated with bike share, micromobility and electric bicycles. All up, individuals could receive nearly $1,000/year for biking to work. 

Together, these policies would offer financial support for lower income Americans seeking transportation alternatives that are efficient, low cost and in many cases could remove the burden of car ownership costs. Incentives for electric bicycles and bike riding will help displace short car trips and reduce carbon emissions, all helping fight the climate crisis.

Of course, because this is Congress, the political reality for moving the Build Back Better Act through the Senate and onto President Biden’s desk remains shaky. As a partisan bill moving through the process known as reconciliation, it requires all Democratic senators’ support, and that isn’t a given yet. In the meantime, the full House still has to approve the measure, and the timeline for that vote hasn’t been set yet.

PeopleForBikes will continue to advocate for these provisions as the Build Back Better Act moves through the legislative process, as well as for opportunities to expand the electric bicycle tax credit. We hope you’ll join us in thanking the leaders in Congress who have shepherded these policies along and empower them to keep moving forward.

House Committee Advances Electric Bicycle Tax Credit and Bike Commuter Benefit

Unlike their European counterparts, Americans appear to have inflated perceptions about the state of bicycling in the U.S. 

The release of the 2021 PeopleForBikes City Ratings featured a new way of calculating city scores, emphasizing the importance of building safe, comfortable and connected bike networks. The revised analysis incorporates only two metrics: the quality of a city’s bicycle network via the Network Score (worth 80% of a city’s total score) and community perceptions of bicycling via the Community Score (worth 20% of a city’s total score).

Diving into the numbers, cities’ Network Scores generally aligned with common perspectives of great places to bike. Since this was our first year going global, we were also able to compare U.S. scores to well-established bicycling meccas across the pond. European top performers like Utrecht and Amsterdam in the Netherlands, Antwerp, Belgium and Copenhagen, Denmark all far outscored U.S. favorites including Portland, Oregon, Seattle, Washington, Boulder, Colorado, and Davis, California when it came to their networks. 

Looking at Community Scores, however, we found a much more surprising trend. The top 10 Community Scores among European cities ranged from 56 to 66 out of a possible 100, while top performing American cities were higher, spreading from 68 to 73. Cities with the highest Community Scores in the U.S. — including places like Park City, Utah, Fort Collins, CO, and Fayetteville, Arkansas — did not match cities with the highest Network Scores, while nearly all of the European cities that scored a top 10 Network Score also ranked in the top 10 for their Community Score.

The data begs the question: Do Americans think our cities are better for biking than they actually are? To dive deeper into the possible differences between U.S. and European perceptions of bicycling, we spoke with Dr. Tara Goddard, assistant professor of urban planning at Texas A&M University, whose work focuses on transportation planning, road safety and traffic psychology and behavior.

“There are cultural biases that [make it so] Americans are more likely to overestimate. We’re highly motivated to rate ourselves well,” said Dr. Goddard. “However, everyone is willing to complain on a survey — just look at Yelp. So, there might be a potential respondent bias in who is actually taking the survey.”

Goddard explained that U.S. respondents may not be intentionally overrating a city, but simply responding to the micro environment they ride in versus the macro environment of city-wide biking measured by the Network Score. If the 10 square blocks where a respondent spends the majority of their time biking are made up of low-stress, bikeable streets, it makes sense that they rate it well. They aren’t incorrect in their opinion, but their neighborhood-level view of bicycling usually does not equally correlate to how good their city is for biking as a whole. Additionally, survey respondents may also conflate the quality of a city’s infrastructure for biking for transportation with their experiences riding recreationally.

On the flip side, European cities’ lower Community Scores may reflect different travel experiences. “Europeans travel to other countries more. They have more of a sense of comparison,” said Goddard. “A European completing the survey has likely been to Amsterdam, Copenhagen, etc. and seen first hand what good bike networks look like. The U.S. is a large country, and there’s much less basis for comparison. An American’s frame of reference for what ‘good’ looks like is so different.”

Political leaders are moved to take action and create change when the public demands it. How do we encourage riders who already think their cities are great for bikes to keep pressing for a high-quality bike network in their city? According to Goddard, bike share is helping pave the way when it comes to creating that demand for quality bicycle infrastructure. “When you don’t bike for transportation, you’re not really seeing the full picture of your city’s bike infrastructure,” said Goddard, noting that recreational riders have the ability to pick and choose their route, avoiding unsafe streets, where point A to point B riders usually only have one way to go. “Bike share is getting more people on bikes on real infrastructure around their city, showing them there is truly room for improvement.”

Goddard also says cities need to be willing to make the investment in new and improved infrastructure, showing riders who may not have experienced great urban bike infrastructure in a city like Antwerp or Copenhagen what’s possible. “The real challenge is showing people how bad their current infrastructure is without making them unsafe,” said Goddard. “We have to find ways to get quality infrastructure in place to create real change. By working with city leaders on this investment, we can show these riders the way.”

Ultimately, U.S. cities’ high Community Scores and low Network Scores may not reflect a big bike ego, but rather the lack of world-class bike cities close to home to serve as a model for future development. Respondent biases towards hyperlocal and recreational riding experiences may further skew results. Network Scores indicate that U.S. cities need to build a lot of protected bike lanes and off-street paths to rival the bike networks in the best European cities. Thankfully, U.S. cities can look abroad for recent examples of rapid infrastructure deployment in places like Paris, France, and Sevilla, Spain, which have both demonstrated that change can happen quickly when the public demands safer streets and city officials commit to building them.

Watch the video below to learn more about the importance of building bicycle infrastructure fast, and check out the PeopleForBikes’ Advocacy Academy for more case studies, explanations of the City Ratings program and other tips for building great bike cities.

A focus on safe, connected bike networks helped boost these medium-sized cities to top spots in our 2021 City Ratings.

Now in its fourth year of analyzing, evaluating and comparing great cities for bicycling, our annual City Ratings program utilized a new and improved rating system for 2021. With an emphasis on safe, connected places to ride, a city’s Network Score makes up 80% of its overall score. Using data from PeopleForBikes’ Bicycle Network Analysis, or BNA, the Network Score measures the quality and connectivity of a city’s bike network — the bike lanes, paths, trails and neighborhood streets someone on a bike can use to access everyday destinations. 

The U.S. cities below range in population from 50,000 to 300,000 and all share one thing in common: a dedication to creating great bike networks. 

For Santa Monica, a coastal beach town in Southern California surrounded on three sides by Los Angeles, the first big effort for better bicycling came when the city passed its Bike Action Plan in 2011. The plan outlined the city’s goals for getting more people on bikes, making bicycling more convenient, creating a safe bike network and establishing a local bike share program. 

Santa Monica started small with low-cost, programmatic work such as offering bike valet services at big community events, as well as installing more bike racks at key locations around town. These smaller projects complemented the larger work of implementing bike infrastructure, and, over the last decade, Santa Monica has seen a steady trickle of bike shops and organizations popping up around the city. “Bicycling is now woven into the urban fabric of Santa Monica,” said Kyle Kozar, senior transportation manager and bike program coordinator. 

Kozar credits Santa Monica’s idyllic location, infrastructure and year-round sunshine for the city’s relatively quick adoption of bicycling. Compared to other nearby Southern California destinations, infamous for nauseating traffic congestion and miles upon miles of concrete, Santa Monica has a lot of greenways and protected bike lanes, making it easy to traverse the beach town by bike.

Last October, the city council approved amendments to the Bike Action Plan, which looked at what Santa Monica’s already accomplished and what needs to be reprioritized. “We laid out a long-term vision for expanding our low-stress network,” said Kozar. “We’d like to build out 15 miles of new protected bikeways in the next five years.”

Going forward, Kozar says Santa Monica’s mission is to make bicycling more inviting for people of all ages and abilities. “We get there by creating infrastructure that is really inviting,” he said. “There are so many reasons for people to get out and experience Santa Monica by bike.”

Set against the picturesque background of the Flatirons in the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains, Boulder, Colorado, has a rich history of bicycling that dates back to the late 1960s. Today, the city is home to 65 miles of multi-use paths that feature more than 80 underpasses and form the backbone of Boulder’s bicycle infrastructure. 

“Over the years, Boulder has adopted a belt and suspenders approach to infrastructure or the construction of multi-use paths adjacent to conventional bike lanes,” said Dave Kemp, senior transportation planner for the city of Boulder. “This approach has helped all types of cyclists feel confident and safe in terms of getting around by bike.”

In addition to its doubled-down efforts on building safe, comfortable places for people to ride, Kemp believes the bicycling culture of Boulder has elevated biking as a transportation mode in general. “There are lots of us [bicyclists] — 20 times the national average, in fact,” said Kemp. “This creates a ‘safety in numbers’ effect and most people driving know to look for bicyclists everywhere.”

Kemp notes that the city’s embrace of electric bicycles has also had a huge impact. Boulder was the first city in Colorado to allow electric bikes on their multi-use path system, and in recent months it’s been working to evolve and refine its shared micromobility program to include an all-electric bike fleet by summer 2021. Looking to the future, Kemp is encouraged by the city’s ability to leverage local dollars and grant funds for bike-related projects. Community Cycles, a local nonprofit bike shop and advocacy group, recently won a grant through the Colorado Department of Energy to purchase e-bikes for underserved community members and essential workers in the Boulder region. 

“We are also cross-pollinating with other programs in the Transportation Division to enhance bicycle facilities when and where feasible,” said Kemp. “We are in the process of constructing our first protected intersection and we hope the project evaluation will result in installing more of these throughout Boulder at locations that really need it to improve safety.” 

Carmel, Indiana, a town of just under 100,000 half an hour north of Indianapolis, began its journey in bicycling in 1996 with the construction of the Monon Trail. A former railway line, the Monon is a paved, multi-use trail that stretches 25 miles from the town of Sheridan to the state capital, passing through the center of Carmel along the way.

“With the construction of such a popular amenity like the Monon, our biggest project became getting people to the trail safely,” said David Littlejohn, transportation systems administrator for Carmel. “We developed our alternative transportation plan in the early 2000s, and since then, the implementation of multi-use paths and expansion of our bicycle and pedestrian network through city projects or private development has been a key priority. Twenty years later, we have nearly 220 miles of paths and greenways throughout Carmel.”

When Carmel was initially developed, like most suburban communities it was car-centric. According to Littlejohn, an emphasis on interconnected, multi-use paths has allowed for nearly every resident to be within a seven-mile bike ride from the center of town. He also notes that some car-focused infrastructure has made Carmel safer for bikes. “We pride ourselves on being the roundabout capital of the U.S. — our 139th roundabout is getting built out this summer,” said Littlejohn. “The community becomes more bikeable when everyone approaching an intersection has to slow down.”

Littlejohn, who has worked for the city for more than 15 years, says Carmel is an ever-growing community both for bikes and in general. “We’re always working on improving our network and the ability for people to use it,” he said. “Over the last 10 years, we’ve built about 10 miles of new trails each year. We want to continue that momentum.”

Located directly across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C., Arlington, Virginia, is home to more than 230,000 residents, as well as the Pentagon and Arlington National Cemetery. Like all cities featured on this list, Arlington boasts a robust bike network, featuring 30 miles of bike lanes, 52 miles of off-street trails and many more miles of low-stress, residential streets.

In addition to its extensive network, in 2009 the Arlington County Community Services Bureau launched BikeArlington, a program focused on helping promote bicycling for all ages and abilities. In 2010, the organization was also involved in the launch of the D.C. metro area’s Capital Bikeshare, the first major U.S. bike share program in the country.

“We have an incredibly knowledgeable and engaged advocacy community, many of whom volunteer on the County’s Bicycle Advisory Committee,” said Henry Dunbar, director of active transportation operations for Arlington County Commuter Services. “There are also scores of volunteers that organize to support bike events and facilities, like the Friends of the Mount Vernon Trail, and the annual group that coordinates the Freezing Saddles competition, an annual team competition to see who can ride the most miles between January 1 and the first day of Spring.”

Looking ahead, Arlington recently updated its Master Transportation Plan to emphasize expanded bike routes and protected bike lanes. In an effort to help make bicycling more equitable, Arlington promotes the Capital Bikeshare for All program, which makes annual memberships to the system available to low-income residents for just $5/year.

Policywise, Dunbar sees a bright future for Arlington. In 2019, the county board voted to adopt Vision Zero — a strategy to eliminate all traffic fatalities and severe injuries while increasing safe, healthy, equitable mobility for all — and in May 2021, it approved an action plan to achieve it by 2030. According to Dunbar, “This has the potential to be the biggest policy shift toward improving bicycle and pedestrian safety we have seen in many years.”

Berkeley, California, located in the Bay Area just northeast of San Francisco, is a true 15-minute city. Thanks to good buy-in from local leadership and a connected network of low-stress neighborhood streets, the university town sees high levels of ridership. “If you’re on a bike, you can be pretty much anywhere you need to be quickly,” said Ben Gerhardstein of Walk Bike Berkeley, an all-volunteer-led advocacy organization promoting safe, low-stress and fun active transportation in the city.

Most essential services are within an easily bikeable distance of residents, and thanks to Berkeley's “Bike Boulevards,” the city’s network of low-stress neighborhood streets, there are usually multiple ways to safely reach a destination. “You’re not locked into being on a four-lane arterial street,” said Gerhardstein. To create the Bike Boulevards, Berkeley relied on aggressive traffic calming measures on existing city streets, in conjunction with signs and pavement markings to prioritize bicycle traffic.

This ease of bikeability, combined with the Bay Area city’s temperate climate and easy-on-the-eyes locale, lends itself to a lot of locals choosing to get out on two wheels. Some 10% of Berkeley residents travel to work by bike, among the highest rates of bike commuting in the U.S. Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguín doesn’t even have a driver’s license, choosing instead to get about by electric bicycle. 

Borrowing from the Critical Mass culture of nearby San Francisco, Berkeley’s East Bay Bike Parties involve a massive gathering of riders celebrating all things bikes. “It’s a monthly event with the most diverse group of people riding bikes and having fun together,” said Gerhardstein. And around town, it's as common to see college students getting to class as it is to see parents hauling toddlers on a cargo bike. Berkely is also reimagining the way it does traffic enforcement through BerkDOT, all with the aim of making streets safer for its Black and brown residents.

“There’s always people on bikes from all walks of life,” said Gerhardstein. “Berkeley wants biking to be safe for everyone.”

How does your city rank? Check out our 2021 City Ratings and learn how to improve your score.

These seven European cities are role models when it comes to great bicycling. Here’s what U.S. cities can learn from them.

New this year, our annual City Ratings program scored 30 European cities across nine countries, including Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain and the United Kingdom. Whether they have a long history of bicycling, like Copenhagen and Utrecht, or have just turned their focus to bicycling, like Paris and Barcelona, most cities on this list outscore their U.S. peers by double digits. What’s their secret? We’ve identified key lessons from seven European cities that are integral to building great bike communities anywhere.


Every day, more than 125,000 people bike to work, school, public transportation, shops or home in Utrecht, a city just south of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. With a total population of just under 360,000, it’s easy to see why the Dutch city ranked number one overall in our 2021 City Ratings.

Like other wealthy European cities, Utrecht was incredibly car-friendly in the 1950s and 1960s. However, the rising gas prices of the 1970s, combined with an uptick in traffic-related child deaths, led to national policies that re-prioritized urban spaces for walking, biking and public transit. Today, 98% of Utrecht households own at least one bike, and nationally in the Netherlands bikes outnumber people. 

Utrecht spends an estimated $55 million per year building and improving its bike infrastructure and facilities. By comparison, Portland, Oregon, a city nearly twice the size of Utrecht, only spends about $30 million annually. According to the local Dutch government, however, the benefits of a healthy, biking population far outweigh the cost — the estimated annual savings from reduced air pollution and healthcare costs related to increased bicycling in the city is $300 million. But It’s not just bike lanes that get and keep more people riding. In Utrecht, an emphasis on the entire cycling experience, including bike parking, is key to its massive success. 

In 2019, the city unveiled the world’s largest bicycle parking garage under Utrecht Central Station, the city’s main transit hub. The massive, three-story structure can house more than 12,500 bikes and is easily accessible from both street level and the train station. Across the city, digital signs point bike riders to the nearest available bike parking, including the number of available spots. All municipal bike parking in Utrecht is free of charge, too, highlighting the city’s commitment to prioritizing the use of bikes.

What American cities can learn: Making biking better means more than just building bike lanes — it’s about improving the entire bicycling experience. Massive investments in safe, convenient and free bike parking ensures riders are prioritized on and off their bikes.

Between 2005 and 2010, Sevilla, a city of nearly 700,000 in the southwest of Spain, created a 120-kilometer (75-mile) network of protected on-street bike lanes, eliminating 5,000 parking spaces along the way. The result? A fivefold increase in cycling trips. In 2006, approximately 13,000 trips were taken by bike daily. By 2011, that number increased to 72,000. 

Rapid network expansion with a focus on connectivity are key to Sevilla’s success. The city went from having almost no dedicated bike facilities to a citywide bike network in just a few years. In 2007 alone, Sevilla built 40 miles of protected bike lanes, a 542% increase over the existing network miles. This high-speed buildout didn’t come as a financial burden to the city, either. Sevilla’s entire bike network only cost the city $40 million — a fraction of the cost of proposed car-centric highway projects, with far more benefits to locals and tourists alike.

Recently Sevilla drafted a new bicycle plan, complete with expansion plans for the network, as well as new, in demand bike parking structures in neighborhoods, workplaces, schools and public transit stations across the city. Aiming to double the rate of bicycling by 2022, Sevilla is now focusing on making bicycling a safe and convenient option for more residents.

To learn more about how the Spanish city accomplished its rapid infrastructure buildout, check out our feature on Sevilla in our Advocacy Academy series “Lessons From the Best Biking Cities.”

What American cities can learn: It doesn’t necessarily take a lot of time or money to build out a high-quality network. Focusing on the creation of safe, protected bike lanes can lead to a massive increase in ridership in just a few years.

The Danish capital of Copenhagen is known for being one of the safest, greenest, most prosperous and most egalitarian cities in the world. But this transformation didn’t happen overnight — Copenhagen is the product of more than 50 years of dedicated investment and hard work. 

Starting in the 1970s, Copenhagen gradually began replacing parking lanes and parking lots with protected bike lanes and public cafes. Traffic speeds fell, and the city became quieter and cleaner, a place where Danes wanted to live and work and tourists wanted to visit. Today, nearly 300 miles of elevated cycle tracks, carefully planned intersections and convenient bike parking prioritizes biking above all other forms of transportation. Bicycling is the fastest, easiest and most convenient way to move around the city.

Copenhagen has normalized bicycling as a primary means of transportation for people of all ages and abilities and made the city a better place to live in the process. By building an entire city with business districts and entertainment hubs that don’t have to be surrounded by parking lots, Copenhagen has made its streets safer and more alive. Today, bikes outnumber cars six-to-one, and Copenhagen is one of the happiest and healthiest cities in the world.

Copenhagen has an annual budget of $12 million specifically dedicated to bicycle infrastructure, much of which has recently funded bicycle and pedestrian bridges. And even with more than half of its residents commuting by bike, more and more people continue to take up biking — in 2016, for the first time, the number of bicycles crossing the city on a daily basis surpassed the number of cars. Copenhagen is living proof that even the best can continue to improve.

Want to learn more about what makes Copenhagen a model city for great biking? Hear from Marie Kåstrup, head of Copenhagen’s bicycle program, in our Advocacy Academy series “Lessons From the Best Biking Cities.”  

What American cities can learn: Normalizing bike riding is key to building a great bike city. Breaking down stigma starts with building great infrastructure and creating a network that’s easily accessible to people of all ages, abilities and backgrounds. This leads to safer, more livable cities.

In 2015, newly elected Mayor Anne Hidalgo announced big plans to transform Paris into a more people-friendly city that caters to bicyclists and pedestrians. Her initiative to improve bicycling, Plan Vélo, included doubling the size of the bike network from 435 miles to 870 miles, fixing the deteriorating local bike share program and creating 10,000 new bike parking spots across the city, all within the span of five years. 

Since then, Paris has invested $178 million in projects to incentivize residents to bike, including pumping $23.8 million into a subsidy program that helps pay for bike repairs and tune-ups for local residents in September 2020. In response to COVID-19, the city turned 31 miles of traffic lanes into dedicated cycling lanes, and while originally temporary, local leadership announced plans to make the changes permanent last June. Mayor Hidalgo also recently pushed forward a proposal that would ban vehicle through traffic in the city center, creating a Limited Traffic Zone that prioritizes bicyclists, pedestrians and other non-motorized road users. Another pledge by the mayor promises to remove 140,000 on-street parking spaces throughout the city, taking street space back from cars and allowing more room for bike lanes, bike parking, green spaces and other public amenities.

All of this hard work is paying off. Since the beginning of the pandemic, bicycling rates across Paris have soared, with 6 out of 10 users on the city’s new bike lanes having never biked before. And importantly, thanks to specific requirements for gender equality outlined in the Plan Vélo — protected bike lanes but also better street lights and more access to electric bike share — the number of women bicycling has risen. 

What American cities can learn: Strong buy-in from local female leadership combined with comprehensive plans to reshape how people move around in a city can lead to tremendous outcomes, including less traffic, cleaner air, healthier citizens and an uptick in female riders.

In spring of 2020, the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, released “Streetscape for London,” a detailed plan outlining projects and other initiatives to create more space for people to safely walk, cycle, scoot and wheel their way around the city, helping to mitigate the effects of the pandemic. Soon after, Transport for London, the governmental body responsible for implementing the projects, got to work. By design, the main projects were quite simple: Build out a network of temporary cycle lanes and routes, widen sidewalks, and create Low-Traffic Neighborhoods (LTNs) by restricting vehicle through traffic on low-speed side streets.

As hoped, these projects helped satiate the increased demand for places to safely walk and bike, as scores of Londoners turned away from the city’s well-established public transportation options amid social distancing requirements. Will Norman, London’s walking and cycling commissioner, shared that the city saw a 200% increase in cycling compared to pre-pandemic numbers, touting the 100 kilometers (62 miles) of new bike lanes and 70 LTNs as reasons for the increased ridership. 

As the effects of the pandemic begin to wane, Transport for London s beginning the process of gathering public feedback on whether to make permanent, amend or remove the infrastructure and traffic calming measures installed in 2020. While there is pushback about certain bike lanes and whether or not the money involved in Streetscape for London was well spent, initial research suggests that the LTNs are popular. The main complaints are around inequitable distribution and the lack of public outreach prior to implementation.

What American cities can learn: Acting quickly and prioritizing all road users can assist in larger public health initiatives. While not every initiative is going to be a massive success, implementing projects equitably and soliciting community engagement throughout their lifespan is key to making sure infrastructure actually serves residents. 

Antwerp, a Belgian port city with a history dating back to the Middle Ages, has 700 kilometers (435 miles) of bike lanes, which account for nearly half of its municipal streets. That expansive network has paid off with an astonishingly high mode share for bicycling: nearly 30% of Antwerp residents commute by bike, 36% bike to school and 28.6% of all trips in the city are taken on two wheels. And the city is continuously improving.

In 2015, Antwerp released its long-term bicycle policy plan, which focuses on the completion of a safe and well-connected bike network. The plan targets missing, weak or unsafe connections within the existing network and includes specific details on what bike infrastructure is needed depending on the speed of the road. For example, 30 km/h is suitable for mixed travel with cars, 50 km/h calls for dedicated on-street bike lanes and 70 km/h requires separated, protected infrastructure. Antwerp has also set a long-term goal of lowering speed limits to 30 km/h on 95% of all city streets.

For those looking to travel around Antwerp by bike, the city offers a route planner where riders can choose from one of four different route options. “Shortest route” is based solely on kilometers, “fastest route” follows the city’s bike network as much as possible, “comfortable route” avoids cobblestone roads, unpaved paths and roads with fast traffic and “junction route” offers scenic rides. Additionally, Antwerp is expanding its Velo bike share system and upping its bicycling education programs for youth and adults — ensuring that biking remains accessible to everyone. 

What American cities can learn: An expansive, well-connected network combined with low-speed limits helps bicyclists feel safe and comfortable no matter where they need to go. Route-finding services, educational initiatives and bike share ensure journeying on two-wheels is an option for all residents. 

Barcelona, situated on Spain’s northeastern coast in the Catalonia region, is one of Europe’s most densely populated cities. With around 1.6 million people, Barcelona has the EU’s highest density of cars, resulting in some of the worst air pollution and noise pollution levels in Europe. When the pandemic hit, it spurred conversations around the importance of natural environments and clean air, forcing city leaders to begin drafting plans for improvement. 

The Catalonian capital recently published its 10-year plan for making the city more green, prioritizing pedestrians, bicyclists and other road users over cars. The main focus of the policy centers around “superblocks,” which groups together regions of the city by nine square blocks, closing them to through traffic and promoting outdoor wellness with the inclusion of bike lanes, play areas and green spaces. Although cars aren’t banned completely from the superblocks, most parking spaces are eliminated and the zones as a whole give priority to people. 

Six superblocks currently exist across the city, with 11 more planned for the next three years. That number could exceed 500 if the plan is completed in its entirety, a number that would correlate to the prevention of 667 premature deaths annually and a 200-day extension on the average life expectancy of locals, according to the Barcelona Institute for Global Health. While Barcelona is far from that goal, the project has gained widespread support from locals.

What American cities can learn: Public space is public health. Open, green spaces throughout a city provide residents with places to recreate, relax and take a breath of fresh air, correlating to a happier, healthier population. 

Spread out across provinces, these disparate locales showcase what bicycling north of the border is all about.

New this year, we revamped our City Ratings program to include more than 100 international cities in 11 countries worldwide. Although in past years we’ve featured Toronto and Vancouver, this is the first time 41 other Canadian cities are ranked. The cities below all fall within the top 10 in Canada, represent different provinces and offer a variety of lessons.

The Canadian city of Montreal, located on an island in the French-speaking province of Quebec, has a long history of activism for bicycle infrastructure. In fact, it was among the first Canadian cities to install bicycle lanes, and today bicycling makes up 13-15% of the city’s overall transportation mode share.

“One of the things that’s different with Montreal, is that it truly has a culture of cyclists,” says Jean-François Rheault, president and CEO at Vélo Québec, a Montreal-based bicycling nonprofit. “You see all kinds of people cycling, whether it's business people, students, women, young or old.”

In the 1990s, Montreal started to build protected bike paths as well as host bicycling festivals that drew upwards of 50,000 people. In 2007, bike share landed in Montreal, bolstered by another wave of new infrastructure and a citywide push for bicycling. Recently, there’s been a third wave with the arrival of the Reseau express velo or REV, a series of wide, express bike path networks throughout the city. In total, there are more than 1,000 kilometers (about 621 miles) of bike lanes in the greater Montreal area, roughly 40% of which are segregated from cars.

“In Montreal, people wear their normal clothes when they bike,” said Rheault. “We’re not quite like Denmark or the Netherlands, but in terms of culture in Canada, we’re the closest.”

Calgary is a large city in Western Canada, with more than 1.2 million residents and an economy firmly rooted in the oil and gas industries. In fact, in 1967, Calgary had more cars per capita than any other city in the world. Calgary’s emergence as a leader when it comes to Canadian bicycling is proof that a car city can also be a bike city. 

“We don’t fight the cars, we look to share the streets,” said Peter Spearing, president of nonprofit Bike Calgary. “We say, ‘You’ve built this great infrastructure for cars but some of it now can actually be shared with other users.’”

Bike Calgary has found success by making an effort to depoliticize bicycling, emphasizing the need for safe streets for kids to bike to school and an overall solutions-based approach to issues. Although residential street speed limits are high across much of Canada, last year Calgary reduced its own from 50 to 40 km/h (roughly 30 to 25 mph), resulting in a higher network score and safer streets. There’s been a more recent push to promote a culture of year-round bicycling, bolstered by priority snow-clearing efforts on major bike thoroughfares and the growing popularity of electric bicycles amongst commuters.

“We get 300 days of sun here with beautiful blue skies,” said Spearing, adding that the city has very little humidity, even on freezing winter days. “We’re definitely blessed with good weather for bicycling.”

Calgary has one of the most extensive urban pathway and bikeway networks in North America, with more than 1,000 kilometers of trails. In particular, the multi-use infrastructure throughout Calgary's downtown core is a source of city pride, with plenty of green space, a peace bridge and views of the Bow River. According to Spearing, the work now is about connecting “orphan bike paths” and creating a more equitable and inclusive system, across highways and into lower-income neighborhoods.

“We’re now looking at bringing in that equity focus and promoting cycling as an alternate mode of transportation,” said Spearing. “You don’t have to be fit, you don’t have to be white and you don’t have to be male to bike.”

In the early 1990s, when Fredericton bicycle advocate Bill Thorpe was canvassing door to door to build bike lanes, people would curse and throw things at him. The railroad lines had moved out of town and residents didn’t want to see them replaced with bike trails, afraid crime rates would go up. Thorpe persevered, eventually founding the Fredericton Trail System, which today is loved by just about everyone in the city. 

“Things have really been progressing here over the last decades,” said Stephen Marr, vice president of the Fredericton Trails Coalition. “People come from hours away to use our trails, which connect to all of the communities in town.”

The main trails go from one end of Fredericton to the other, spanning across the St. John River, which cuts through town, and linking up with low-stress neighborhood routes. There are 120 kilometers (about 74 miles) of non-motorized, multi-use trails within city bounds which also connect externally to the larger New Brunswick Trail System, allowing bicyclists to go from the city center to surrounding scenic rides and mountain bike trails. Of the city's trails, 28 kilometers are also paved, allowing for easy, yearlong maintenance and plowing in the winter — a saving grace for many of Fredericton’s university students.

“You can really bike everywhere in town,” said Marr, noting that electric bicycles have become especially popular among retired residents. “And in addition to bicycling, people use the trails for walking and running.”

In order to court more bikers, the city’s bike shops, municipal organizations and advocacy groups host a series of annual events and educational opportunities, many geared towards children. Based on community feedback, Fredericton is working towards a trail system with amenities, where residents might be able to stop while biking for lunch or a beer. By encouraging small businesses to set up along the trail system, as well as installing solar trail lights and murals done by local artists, that dream is slowly becoming a reality.

“Everyone in the Fredericton area is trail-centric,” said Marr, noting that tourism has a big role to play in the 58,000-person city, which is working to become a dedicated Trail Town. “A lot of smaller places that have an active transportation component to their recreation aren’t taking advantage of the business side of things. When people see that they can bring their bikes up here, spend the whole day biking and then bed down in town with their bike safely locked up? That’s a big draw that shouldn’t be overlooked.”

When Hans Moor first moved to Ottawa from the Netherlands in 1998, he was shocked by the lack of bicycling culture, despite the geography being relatively flat. There was Ciclovia, where the city closed streets for bicycling, but there weren't a lot of casual, everyday riders. Wanting to create change, Moor joined Bike Ottawa, where he started to advocate for stuff that was already seen as normal in his home country. 

“In North America, biking is considered more of a sport than a mode of transportation,” said Moor, noting that photography, and media in general, have a key role to play here. “In the beginning, a lot of the work we did was around changing minds and making people more aware.”

Nowadays, you'll see people from all walks of life biking in Canada’s capital city, from seniors to families with two or three kids on cargo bikes. The National Capital Commission, a government agency, built the majority of Ottawa’s main pathways and the city eventually took up the work of connecting them with other dedicated multi-use pathways and low-stress, on-street routes. Every year, Ottawa sets aside budget funds to close gaps in the network and whenever a road is rebuilt, it's become standard to put it back together with a Complete Streets design. Today, Moor estimates that Ottawa, with a population of just under one million people, is about 95% of the way to having a complete, connected network. 

“If you want to get people cycling, you have to start on a small scale,” said Moor. “You want to build a network that connects drug stores and churches and schools because that’s what makes people bike — most people bike five to six kilometers, not 50.”

After six years serving as Bike Ottawa’s president, Moor stepped down in order to create space for new ideas. These days he still blogs about bicycling in Ottawa, showcasing local advocacy opportunities or juxtaposing bicycling abroad, and creating fun maps of Ottawa’s bike network. When he compares Ottawa to the Netherlands now, Moor sees a lot of commonalities in demographics, types of bicycling and infrastructure — just at lower numbers.

Despite having some of the best bicycling infrastructure in Canada, Vancouver has a relatively low 2021 City Ratings score of 47, meaning it still has a way to go when it comes to improving safety and access. Its community score, however, is the highest in Canada at 65, meaning residents believe it to be a great place for bicycling — in particular, people generally have good awareness of various biking facilities that are accessible in the city. 

Bicycling is also the fastest growing mode of transportation in Vancouver, with trips increasing by a full 40% between 2008 and 2011 alone. The city also has more than 450 lane-kilometers (around 279 miles) of bike routes with more being added every year. Plus, there’s political will for a holistic approach to bicycling and Slow Streets initiatives, as well as a healthy dialogue regarding widespread bicycling education programs for kids.

“Vancouver has engaged all aspects of what creates a great cycling environment,” said Erin O'Melinn, executive director at Hub Cycling, a bicycling nonprofit based in Vancouver. “It has a connected cycling network that’s comfortable for most and the start of a systemic education system. By pairing infrastructure with promotion, the city is showing people how they can — and why they should — switch to cycling.”

A city of around 675,000 people, Vancouver has focused on serving its busiest, most populous destinations, leading to a fantastic network of protected bike lanes in its downtown core but less infrastructure throughout lower-income and more residential areas. O’Melinn believes Vancouver is really a leader when it comes to emphasizing a connected network and shifting people to new modes of transportation but like most cities, it has more work to do when it comes to equity and filling in network gaps.

“There has been some really meaningful progress in the last 10 to 15 years and the city’s well on its way to making bicycling an integrated part of the culture,” said O’Melinn, emphasizing that Vancouver is focused on bringing in more diverse ridership. “I would not say cycling in spandex is the majority of people in Vancouver — there’s a lot of people in everyday clothes, which is great to see.”

Despite a default provincial speed limit of 50 km/h (about 30 mph), Vancouver has lowered speed limits on all shared residential neighborhood bikeways. If the city were to impose a blanket default of 30 km/h on all residential streets, however, not just its bikeways, the city’s overall score would undoubtedly be higher.

These six U.S. cities are top of class when it comes to their bike networks, infrastructure and political willpower.

At PeopleForBikes, we put a lot of emphasis on a city’s bike network and its residents’ ability to safely bike to the things they need, such as transit connections, jobs, schools, grocery stores and hospitals, as well as the things they like, such as recreational amenities like parks, trails or major shopping centers. We also account for a community’s perception of its local bike scene — every year, we conduct an online survey to hear from people that live, work and play in the cities we’re rating. 

Based on a combination of their network and community scores, all of the places on this list ranked among the top 10 cities in the U.S. Although some of these scores might seem low, cities with scores of 50 and up demonstrate higher ridership, improved safety and greater access than their peers. We spoke to experts in each location to better understand what it takes to build better bicycling communities on a large scale. 

San Francisco’s bike culture is long-established and draws from a 30-plus year history of Critical Mass, a form of direct action where people meet at a certain location and time in order to amplify bicycling via a large group ride.  

“The culture in San Francisco is very supportive of change and you have various organizations pushing for improvements,” said Mike Sallabarry, senior transportation engineer with the city. “It’s not just about on-street facilities, it’s about the different programs and events — all those things add up.”

From big events like Bike to Work Day to smaller workshops and educational gatherings, there are plenty of opportunities for folks looking to build community around bikes in the Bay Area. Even before the pandemic hit, San Francisco had a vibrant Sunday Streets program, a nod to more livable, car-free neighborhoods. Since the city is relatively small — roughly 47 square miles — many residents naturally see driving as unnecessary and unsustainable.

“San Francisco gets a reputation for being a hilly city, which of course it is, but so much of our network bypasses those steep hills,” said Matt Lasky, a project manager at San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA). “Recently, with e-bikes, it’s become even more manageable and accessible.”

San Francisco’s commitment to building out additional bicycle infrastructure has also helped, as has the pace at which it's doing so. In 2019, San Francisco Mayor London Breed pledged to build 20 miles of new protected bike lanes over the course of two years, doubling down on the city’s Vision Zero plan by focusing on high injury zones. This May, Mayor Breed announced that the city had exceeded that goal, laying out additional plans for more and better bike parking, as well as safer and slower streets. 

“Our network build-out has accelerated significantly in recent years, primarily due to our quick build program,” said Sallabarry, noting that the process involves using low-cost materials to focus on safety improvements. Adds Lasky, “The program allows us to evaluate what’s working and then iterate on it.”

San Francisco now boasts an extensive, connected network of 450-plus miles of bike lanes, roughly 40 miles of which are protected. The city hopes to release a map of the network that shows the existing bikeways and where gaps exist, allowing for the prioritization of connectivity going forward.

Since all of New York City's five boroughs could be considered a city in and of itself, our City Rating program scores each borough individually. Of the five, four ranked in the top 10 for big cities with Brooklyn scoring highest (62), followed by Manhattan (55), Queens (54) and the Bronx (44). Although automobile ownership in New York City is lower than the national average (about 45% versus around 90%), it’s not surprising that the one borough lagging behind when it comes to bicycling, Staten Island, also has the highest rates of car ownership (83%).

New York City also boasts the highest number of transit users in the country and in many areas, is densely populated. In Manhattan, which only spans about 22 square miles, there’s the added benefit of everything being relatively close together. When it comes to bike infrastructure, however, what really sets the city apart is its commitment to careful planning combined with rapid implementation. Over the last six years, the city built more than 50 miles of bike lanes each year. Even more impressive, it averaged more than 20 miles of protected lanes per year.

“I think the most important thing you can do [for bicycling] is to build more bike infrastructure,” said Ted Wright, director of the bicycle and greenway program at the NYC Department of Transportation. “You can’t just do protected bike lanes, you can’t only do capital projects — you have to deal with what’s out there right now, listen to where people are riding, use your planners to think about where people could be riding, and go out and build stuff.” 

New York City’s aggressiveness when it comes to construction has paid off, with the number of bicyclists in the city jumping roughly 8% per year since the ‘80s. In particular, the city prioritized projects that have immediate benefits, such as bike lanes across bridges or greenways, what Wright refers to as “beautiful highways for bikes.” The city relies on both data and listening to its stakeholders — accounting for all users and modes is especially crucial when space is at a premium. By improving on projects that weren’t quite right, New York City has managed to build trust and success over time.

Despite having a reputation for rain, the climate in Seattle is relatively temperate. When it does rain, it tends to be more of a constant drizzle rather than a downpour and the city rarely gets snow or intense heat. Add in the fact that Seattle is known as an outdoorsy place — it’s the birthplace of REI, after all — and you get a populace that’s already primed for biking.

“We also have a great advocacy community that has a good relationship with the city,” said Serena Lehman, senior transportation planner with the city. “They push the city to be bolder and prioritize funding for bike projects.”

Even internally, Lehman notes that in the last 15 years, bike champions have become ubiquitous, helping to connect bicycling to transit, advocate for connections from certain neighborhoods or allocate funds for underserved communities. Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan has also made a big commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, opening up substantial funding for bikes and allowing for the completion of critical infrastructure segments that connect Seattle’s larger network.

“We prioritize our unbuilt segments based on several factors,” said Lehman. “The top factors being safety, then equity and finally connectivity, ridership and livability.”

In 2014, Seattle adopted an ambitious bicycle master plan, prioritizing 226 new citywide network miles to be completed by 2030. Today, the city has completed 33 miles and plans to have another 55 done by 2024. In order to make it easier for new people to ride and commute, Seattle prioritized building key bicycle connections to transit, emphasizing first and last mile connections.

Portland has a reputation for being a bikeable city, something that’s only bolstered by events like Sunday Parkways, where streets are closed for folks to “discover active transportation” and the World Naked Bike Ride, meant to highlight the vulnerability of bicyclists. When new folks move to Portland or relocate in town, the city’s SmartTrips program delivers tailored emails and materials showcasing various active transportation options for their new residence. Unsurprisingly, Portland has the highest percentage of bike commuters for any large U.S. city.

“There’s a long history of advocacy at the political level that stretches back decades, as well as advocacy at the community level,” said John Brady, communications director at the Portland Bureau of Transportation. “There's a tradition of biking in Portland that has flowed both on the policy side of things and also on the culture side of things.”

Portland continues to build infrastructure at an impressive clip, emphasizing network connections between neighborhoods through its Missing Links program. As a bridge town with major freeways that bisect its core, the city has begun to build north-west crossings over interstates and bicycle-pedestrian bridges across the Willamette River. In order to bring in new bikers, the city also focused on expanding greenways and building more infrastructure in East Portland, where more historically marginalized communities reside.

“As a city, we’ve begun assessing everything we do through the lens of racial justice, and biking isn't immune from that,” said Brady, noting that PBOT has a full-time equity and inclusion manager and that they’ve also prioritized the expansion of their fully electric bike share system. “There’s safety in the sense of not being hit by a car while riding, but there’s also personal safety from bigotry and violence. We can build a really great bicycle facility but if Black or Latino Portlanders don’t feel safe taking advantage of it, then we’re not completely doing our job.”

Every city on this list has a bike share program but, when it comes to successful community outreach, none quite compare to Philadelphia's Indego system. The city of Philadelphia is a founding member of the Better Bike Share Partnership and from its inception, Indego has maintained strong equity and educational components, working to bring biking to low-income and historically marginalized communities.

“In our bike network development, we've been able to learn from Indego on how to closely work with neighborhoods,” said Kelley Yemen, Philadelphia’s director of complete streets. “Maybe what’s needed isn’t a bike lane but rather street calming on an adjacent street — we have those conversations and really work to meet people where they’re at as we expand.”

Philadelphia is also working to build out a high-quality, safe and connected network, which it hopes will not only bring in new riders but also keep them riding. The city has consistently seen an increase in bicycling year over year and to keep its numbers growing, Philadelphia is in the process of converting to LED lighting citywide and making all-season bicycling more accessible through winter snow clearing efforts.

“We’re not the richest city but we try to leverage every investment we have to make Complete Streets,” said Yemen, noting that Philadelphia is opportunistic when it comes to development. “When PennDOT is reconstructing a bridge or a street is getting repaved, we’re filling in gaps and making bike network connections.”

While a score of 45 leaves a lot of room for improvement, we’re including Detroit in our list based on its progress. The city built its first protected bike lane in 2017 and by the end of this year, will have added another 43 miles of protected bike lanes. That dramatic increase in quality infrastructure has been bolstered by Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, who loves two-way protected bike lanes, as well as the transfer of key employees from the Planning and Development Department to the Department of Public Works.

“We weren’t making a lot of headway before,” said Erika Linenfelser, an urban planner with the city who moved departments with her boss, Deputy Director of Complete Streets Caitlin Marcon. “The Department of Public Works is the one that installs and maintains the bike lanes — for it to now have a Complete Streets focus has been a fundamental shift.”

Detroit is also relatively flat and blessed with incredibly wide streets, a vestige from the time when it earned the nickname Motor City. In the decades since then, Detroit has lost most of its car manufacturing business and its population, declaring bankruptcy in 2013. The city, which was originally built to accommodate 2 million people, now has a population of under 700,000, leaving those big streets with very little traffic. 

“We don’t have a lot of money but it's also fairly easy for us to go in and build protected bike lanes,” said Linenfelser. “We don't have to eliminate street parking, as we can literally just take out a lane that isn’t being used.”

There’s a general consensus among Detroit residents that safer streets are needed and Linenfelser’s team has been emphasizing the fact that more bicycle lanes and lower speed limits benefit pedestrians and drivers alike. Black and Latino residents make up almost 85% of the city and there has been a valid concern, often voiced by City Council members, that bike lanes “aren’t for them” or that they might lead to gentrification. In order to promote bicycling as an activity for everyone, the city upped its educational outreach, diversified its marketing, utilized social media more and partnered with community organizations.

Currently, Detroit is considering how it might grow its network as part of a larger Transportation Master Plan. Since the money isn’t available for a citywide network of protected bike lanes, slow streets with wayfinding signage will likely play an important role when it comes to filling in network gaps and making bicycling viable for less central neighborhoods.

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