We’re making biking better in Wisconsin through funding local bike projects, supporting pro-bike policies and legislation at the local and state levels and highlighting great hometown routes on Ride Spot. In November 2019, we helped pass Wisconsin’s electric bicycle law, which defined electric bicycles into a three class system and improved access for electric bicycles statewide.

Officials and advocates enjoy the new Pershing Bikeway on its opening day. PHOTO CREDIT: San Diego County Bicycle Coalition

More than 200 high-priority bike projects were constructed across the U.S. in the last year according to PeopleForBikes’ National Bike Project Tracker, a first-of-its-kind database as part of our Great Bike Infrastructure Project. 

With the goal of creating more safe, fun, and connected places to ride in communities nationwide, the Great Bike Infrastructure Project is fast-tracking thousands of bike projects in all 50 states. From protected bike lanes to multi-use paths to singletrack mountain bike trails, each project in our database features a basic description and project status — proposed or planned, approved but not funded, funded and ready for construction, or completed — alongside useful links for people to support local advocacy organizations and get projects across the finish line in their backyard.


As we enter the second year of the Great Bike Infrastructure Project, we’re celebrating a few of our favorite projects that were completed in the last 12 months along with the many benefits that bike projects can offer communities of all shapes and sizes. 

300 West is a critical north-south arterial road in Salt Lake City that previously wasn’t safe for biking. Local leaders took advantage of the need to repave the street to make much needed improvements, implementing Complete Streets strategies championed by the Great Bike Infrastructure Project. Using funding from the city’s “Funding Our Future” program, a local sales tax that can be a great funding source for creating better places to bike, the city constructed new crosswalks, planted trees for shade, and built a new 10-foot-wide bike path adjacent to the sidewalk so bike riders and pedestrians can both travel freely without conflict.  

San Diego’s new Pershing Bikeway connects the diverse North Park neighborhood to bike lanes near downtown through Balboa Park. The final 2.3-mile project includes a combined two-way protected bike lane connecting to a separate bike path which then connects to one-way protected bike lanes. The bikeway creates a more comfortable and convenient way for people of all ages and abilities to travel while providing an important link in San Diego’s growing connected bike network. 

Madison is expanding access to close-to-home recreation for thousands of local residents thanks to the recently completed singletrack trails through Sycamore Park. The 1.5-mile “adventure trail” features natural surfaces optimized for biking. Portions of the trail are covered in a natural stone chip seal surface while others are made up of native soil, wood, and stone. While communities on the west and south sides of Madison have access to many miles of singletrack, this new section of trail expands riding opportunities on the east side of the city, where trail access was previously scarce.


Is there a local bike project in your community that needs support? Explore our interactive map to identify projects in your area and let us know if we need to add a new project to our list. You can also explore our tools and resources to help advance more bike projects in your backyard. PeopleForBikes is committed to making sure every one of the more than 1,800 projects in our database is constructed to share the countless benefits of safe, fun, and connected places to ride with millions of people across the U.S.

Bike Projects Are Benefiting Communities Nationwide

Photo Credit: Mackinac Island Tourism Bureau

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

High-scoring cities often perform well across six factors captured in the acronym SPRINT: safe speeds, protected bike lanes, reallocated space for biking and walking, intersection treatments, network connections, and trusted data.


For 2024, we ranked more than 2,500 cities worldwide, including 816 new U.S. cities and 133 new cities across the U.K. and Australia.

Medium Cities (50,000-300,000 population)

Photo Credit: Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority

PeopleForBikes’ 2024 City Ratings feature comprehensive rankings for more than 2,500 cities from across the world on the quality of their bike networks. With seven years of City Ratings results, we’ve tracked the progress of cities nationwide on improving bicycling in their communities. This year, we’re proud to celebrate Cities on the Rise, all of which improved their City Ratings scores in recent years thanks to investments in making their streets safe, fun, and connected places to ride. 


Three of our 2024 Cities on the Rise share a common trait outside of their dedication to better biking — they’re all Midwest college towns. Ames, Iowa, increased its City Ratings score from 40 (out of a possible 100) in 2020 to 66 in 2024; Madison, Wisconsin, improved its score from 50 in 2020 to 58 in 2024; and Ann Arbor, Michigan, rose from a score of 40 in 2020 to a score of 46 in 2024.


Public input plays a significant role in the planning and improvement of Ames' bike network. Photo Credit: Toole Design

Home of Iowa State University, nearly half of Ames’ population is college students, with an enrollment of 30,177 in fall of 2023. With such a large non-driving population, Ames wants to make sure everyone has safe options for getting around.

“From a planning and zoning perspective, our housing, services, and other facilities are heavily driven by the student population,” says Damion Pregitzer, traffic engineer for the City of Ames. “For a lot of trips during the week, students are walking or biking from where they live to class and other destinations.”


In response to the need for safe biking routes, Ames’ recent five-year Capital Improvements Plan includes a significant chunk of funding for bike projects, with an average of at least $1.3 million allocated to bike infrastructure improvements each year. Ames is also lucky enough to be considered a metropolitan area in Iowa, giving city officials access to better transportation planning tools to evaluate street stress levels and direct funding to areas most in need of investment. 


“As a university town, we’ve always supported new technologies,” Pregitzer says. “All of our signalized intersections have advanced bike and ped detection. There’s no intersection in town that cannot be activated by a pedestrian or bike.”


When it comes to what lessons Ames can offer other cities looking to improve, Pregitzer says slow and steady wins the race.

“The big thing is trying to make steady progress. Other communities in Iowa have tried to do one big flashy project that costs a lot of money, but that’s not what makes the change,” he says. “Look where your gaps are in your network and prioritize them. Find that unmet need where folks can/should bike and walk and put in the infrastructure where it benefits people the most.”

Wisconsin’s capital city is also home to the state’s largest university, with more than 48,000 students attending University of Wisconsin Madison. Sandwiched between two large lakes, there are only a few ways to get in and out of the downtown city core, an issue that bikes can play a key role in solving.

“Decades ago, the city decided there wouldn’t be a freeway into the city center. More recently, the city said publicly what everyone already knew — you cannot have everyone drive into the city center, so you have to prioritize other transportation,” says Robbie Webber, who serves on the board of directors for Madison Bikes, a local bike advocacy group. “With a huge number of people trying to access a small amount of space squeezed between two lakes, you have to find ways to move people around.”

When it comes to the great work Madison has done to improve biking in recent years, Webber points to the dedication of city leadership in championing the power of bikes.


“There have been a lot of infrastructure projects, but one of the big changes that took place was in 2019 when we elected our new mayor who believes in prioritizing transportation other than driving. We also hired a transportation director who is a year-round bike commuter and understands personally what is needed to make the city bike friendly,” Webber says. “A lot of our city staff are on their bikes every day, and you can’t get that knowledge just from talking to people. You have to live it.”


As a city alder, Webber also says the voices and opinions of community members play a big role in moving bike initiatives forward. She points out that too often, the only people coming to local meetings are those against a certain project, and that Bike Madison has put a lot of effort into getting those in favor of pro-bike projects to attend meetings and make their support known.


“You never know when your words or actions are going to inspire someone else,” she says. “You could be at a neighborhood meeting saying, ‘I bike to work, and this new bike lane is important to me.’ That could push someone else to say ‘Hey, I care too!’”


In response to one of the most common arguments against the installation of bike infrastructure — Why would we install a bike lane here? No one bikes on this street! — Webber offers up some delightfully cheeky words of wisdom, “Well, you don’t decide where to put in a community swimming pool by seeing where people are showing up with swimsuits.”


For other local advocates looking to make a difference in their communities, Webber says you can’t be afraid to speak up — communicate how people can get involved and make their voices heard.

Despite a strong local bike culture, there was not a single protected bike lane on the streets of Ann Arbor five years ago. Following the success of a two-way protected bike lane installed on William Street in the fall of 2019, the city recognized the real potential of giving people more options to move around outside of getting in the car and began building out its bike network.

Today, miles of protected bike lanes and countless gallons of green paint later, Ann Arbor is seeing its hard work pay off. 

“I’ve been able to utilize Ann Arbor’s new bikeways to get to and from school,” says Amy Boeving, a recent high school graduate who will be attending the University of Michigan later this year. “I feel really comfortable biking in Ann Arbor, thanks to the visibility with green paint, bollards, and two-way bike lanes, it’s become really easy to navigate.”

“There’s been a groundswell of local enthusiasm for bicycling,” adds Doug French, who does communications work for the Bike Alliance of Washtenaw, a local advocacy group. “There’s a lot of momentum and people caring about making the city more bike friendly.”


With the development of a citywide transportation plan — Ann Arbor Moving Together Towards Vision Zero — Nate Phipps, a co-founder of the Bike Alliance of Washtenaw, says the expansion of Ann Arbor’s bike network has included a lot of thoughtful decision making.

“The creation of new bike lanes is not coincidental. If even one block of your commute feels dangerous, you’re not going to bike,” Phipps says, noting the importance of filling in network gaps to make sure everyone feels comfortable moving around by bike. “We are really focused on the continuity and connectivity of our bike lanes.”


Like many cities across the Midwest, Ann Arbor certainly isn’t known for what most people would consider ideal “biking weather” during the winter months. But that doesn’t stop locals from continuing to get on their bikes 12 months out of the year.

“You don’t need good weather to have a good bike community,” says Suzette Wanninkhof, an organizer of Ann Arbor’s Bike Party, which has been bringing cycling enthusiasts together for community group rides for the last 10 years. “We even hold a ‘Worst Day of the Year Ride’ every January. There’s so much you can do to keep the fun going all year long.”

These Midwest College Towns Are Making Big Strides for Better Biking

For the sixth consecutive year, PeopleForBikes is proud to release our annual City Ratings, a data-driven program to evaluate, identify and compare the best cities and towns for bicycling. For 2022, more than 1,000 cities were rated in the U.S. and Canada, the largest number in program history.

Below are 2022’s top-ranked small, medium and large U.S. cities for bicycling. All cities in these lists have a City Ratings score greater than 50, the threshold score for a great place to bike.

2022's Top-Ranking U.S. Cities for Bicycling

Whether it’s to reduce their carbon footprint, for exercise, to save money or just for fun, more and more college students across the United States are choosing to get around by bike. As a result, many colleges and universities are putting in extensive time and resources to make biking more accessible and safe on campuses nationwide.

In this year’s City Ratings, PeopleForBikes’ annual program to evaluate, identify, and compare the best cities and towns for bicycling, many college towns ranked in the top 50 out of more than 1,000 U.S. cities for bicycling. Read on to learn what these places are doing to become great places to bike.

Coming in at number two overall in this year’s City Ratings with a score of 72 (out of a possible 100) is Davis, California. A hip college town 11 miles west of Sacramento, Davis is home to the University of California at Davis, a large public university with 31,000 students spread across its 5,300-acre campus. Known for being one of the best places for bicycling in the United States, it’s hard to ignore the city’s incessant love for biking when riding around Davis. Davis has a myriad of different bike share options, including e-bikes and long-term rentals, so it’s never difficult to find a way to get around town by bike.

Davis was an early pioneer in bicycle mobility, constructing their first bike lanes in 1967, which have since expanded to include 50 miles of on-street bike lanes and 50 miles of off-street shared paths. Close to 98% of the streets in Davis have some sort of bicycling provision and the city is also home to the Bicycling Hall of Fame, built in 1987. Cycling through the college campus, you’ll see both staff and students alike commuting on their bikes. An estimated 47% of staff use bikes to get to work every day and about 20% of all trips in Davis include a bike.

As a town, Davis has fostered a shared sense of mutual respect between motorists and pedestrians and created a strong sense of biking culture. Davis’ compact city size, flat topography, access to bike rental services and relatively mild climate make it an ideal place to get around on two wheels!

Home of Penn State University, State College, Pennsylvania, ranked 35th overall with a City Ratings score of 53. A majority of Penn State’s 40,000 students use cycling as their main form of transportation due to its massive sprawling campus, but up until 2008, cycling was not very accessible.

In 2008, Penn State's Transportation Services proposed a “Bicycle Master Plan,” which not only added multiple bike lanes throughout campus but also included bike climbing lanes for steep uphill sections, showering and changing facilities, more bike racks, covered bike parking, more effective snow clearing for bike-heavy areas and a bicycle education program for all incoming freshman. Many of these facilities are located no more than a five-minute walk from any destination on campus and 21 bike share rental stations across campus provide more than 15,000 rides each year to students, faculty, and staff.

State College is especially unique from other cycling college towns because of its active efforts to create a culture of biking for everyday travel and recreational use by building a community around it. The “Bike Den” on Penn State’s campus is a community-building space where cyclists can work on bike maintenance projects, attend bike workshops and connect with other local cyclists. State College’s hilly topography, harsh winters, and large campus do not make being a bike-friendly college town easy, but the campus transportation services are continuously working harder to make cycling safer and more convenient for everyone.

Oregon is known as the most bicycle-friendly state on the West Coast, and Corvallis, home to Oregon State University, is certainly no exception. Corvallis’ abundance of nature, compact size, mild summer temperatures, and network of bike lanes make it a dream to bike around! In fact, 97% of the city's streets are connected by bike lanes and shared-use paths, which means almost any trip can be made in 15 minutes or less by bicycle.

Corvallis has been promoting active recreation and transportation for decades. In 1971, the Citizens Advisory Commission on Bicycles was formed to create an advocacy group for bike infrastructure, safety, and culture. Oregon State University followed in Corvallis' steps, encouraging bicycling as an easy, healthy transportation option using a program called “ZAP,” which rewards students and faculty for biking around campus. In 2019 alone, ZAP logged 54,337 trips!

OSU also provides amenities including bike parking, repair stands, bike share and bike loan options, bicycle safety training, and bicycle registration services. Oregon State’s efforts for biking are paying off: In 2019, about 20% of students got to campus by bike, higher than other comparable universities by a whopping 10-15%! Corvallis is the perfect home base for anyone looking to explore the views of the Sunset State by bike.

Madison, Wisconsin, or “Mad Town” as it is lovingly referred to, ranked 24th overall in this year’s City Ratings with a score of 57. Known as the Bike Capital of the Midwest, biking is not only acceptable but accessible in the Wisconsin capital. The city’s 295 miles of paths, routes, and streets were specifically designed to be accessible by bikers for a safe and convenient ride. These paths are well-utilized, with more than 2.9 million users being logged across Madison’s state-of-the-art counting stations annually.

Madison is also home to the University of Wisconsin-Madison, one of eight universities in America named at the Platinum level by the League of American Bicyclists. UW Madison is home to a strong network of bicycle routes and is continuously adding more to make every destination on campus accessible by bike. Boasting many amenities including bicycle share programs, 40+ e-bike stations, bicycle parking, repair stations, and after-ride amenities, the city’s biking success was almost inevitable. 25% of students and 18% of staff will bike to campus in good weather, with about 10% of students and 4% of staff still biking to campus in poor weather. Madison’s efforts have not gone unnoticed, and the city has cultivated a strong, year-round culture of biking for active everyday travel and transportation.

Nestled deep in the Appalachian foothills of gorgeous Southeastern Ohio is Athens, a lively college town that ranks number 36 on this year’s list. Athens County is home to nearly 1,000 miles of paved and gravel roads open for cycling use, with world-class mountain biking trails just a short drive away. Residents of Athens take full advantage of these trails — 4% ride their bikes to work and even more ride their bikes recreationally. The state of Ohio recently published its Walk.Bike.Ohio policy plan and the city of Athens also established a Bike and Pedestrian Safety Plan intending to expand its current bicycle network by adding new bikeways, more bicycle parking, and other facilities as well as growing education and safety initiatives throughout the state and city.

Ohio University, located in Athens, has 21 miles of bike paths on campus for its 28,000 students, and much of the university's bikeways underwent major repairs in 2014 and 2015 to uphold OU’s responsibility to provide safe transportation to their campus community. Their unwavering commitment to active transportation can be seen in the extensive network of bicycle parking, events, and resources for students and staff biking or walking to class.

Boulder, Colorado, is the perfect combination of urban living and the wild outdoors. Resting right where the mighty Rocky Mountains meet the rolling plains in Colorado’s Front Range, there is an abundance of food, breweries and live music to enjoy in the University of Colorado college town. The minute you set foot in Boulder, you’ll be greeted by helmet-clad enthusiasts riding leisurely, perfect-for-kids bike paths like the Boulder Creek Path, adventure-seeking mountain bikers enjoying stunning views on the Canyon Loop in Betasso Preserve, and working professionals getting in a workout on two wheels during their lunch break.

Biking is core to Boulder culture, with an average of four bikes for every household and a myriad of different bike share services available across town. More than 300 miles of bikeways weave throughout Boulder, making it easy to get to the dentist, a Psychology 101 class, and a gorgeous state park all in the same day. Cyclists take advantage of every good-weather day, and with about 300 days of sun per year, the city is always bustling with bikes. 10.5% of residents bike to work in Boulder, significantly higher than the U.S. average of 0.6%.

The best day of the year on campus is CU Bike Fest Day — a day full of bike community, culture, and fun for CU Boulder students. The festivities and culture of biking in Boulder make it an obvious choice for any cycling fanatic.

Ames, Iowa, has the quintessential college town experience, with an equal amount of big- and small-city feel in the town of 64,000. During the Iowa State University football season, the city is full of energy and excitement, and even when the students go home, the community finds other ways to stay active. In the 1970s and ‘80s, Ames was home to the Raleigh/Levi cycling team which produced big-name riders like Andy Hampsten and Connie Carpenter. Recently, a trail network of about 600 miles was built around central Iowa, with 52 of those miles directly in Ames! Any talk about cycling in Iowa must also include the Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa, better known as RAGBRAI, which is an average 468-mile-long ride that has stopped in Ames four times during its tenure.

Biking is a great way to get around in Ames — in fact, about 15% of residents get to work by walking or biking! Iowa State University students are also big bikers — sitting on 1,800 acres and home to nearly 27,000 students, you can almost always find someone zipping around campus on a bike. ISU is looking to expand its infrastructure by connecting high-use trails like the High Trestle Trail to campus and bringing a bike share service on campus for students. Ames and ISU already have some fantastic bike infrastructure, and it certainly looks like the improvements won’t be slowing down anytime soon.

We recently awarded $50,000 to eight projects across eight states through our spring Industry Community Grants Program. 

PeopleForBikes, a national bicycling advocacy and industry trade organization dedicated to putting more people on bikes more often and making biking better for everyone, announced its latest round of community grants. After a short hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the latest grant round for spring 2021 totals $50,000 and includes eight projects across eight states. 

PeopleForBikes’ Industry Community Grants Program is funded through the Employee Pro Purchase program, which collects donations from individuals who work in the bike industry and take advantage of pro-pricing discounts on new bikes and bicycling equipment. Batch, Cannondale, Giant, Niner, Shimano, Trek and Vaast currently participate. Since 1999, the PeopleForBikes Industry Community Grants Program has funded more than 400 projects in all 50 states totaling more than $3.6 million in direct funds and leveraged more than $775 million. The total funding this year represents more than 2,500 individuals in the bike industry who gave back to grow bicycling through an employee pro purchase. 

“Our industry has a long history of giving back and investing in important bike projects across the country,” said Jenn Dice, president and CEO of PeopleForBikes. “We thank the seven companies and thousands of employees that contribute to this important program and are excited for the newest group of inspiring projects that will improve communities through bicycling and leverage even more investment.” 

Recycled Tires as Bike Lane Barriers - Broad Ave. Demonstration Project | $10,000
Memphis, TN 

The Binghampton Development Corporation (BDC), in partnership with the City of Memphis, will use this grant to pilot a 1.2-mile demonstration project using upcycled car tires as bike lane barriers. If successful, the BDC will help launch an employee-owned business to produce the barriers as part of its new Business Hub. 

Families Come Together to Play | $8,000 
Porcupine, SD 

PeopleForBikes’ grant will fund a bike repair station and bike racks for the community center and multigenerational playground on the Pine Ridge Reservation. This project is part of a larger development led by the Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation to provide community and recreational spaces for the Lakota people. 

Oak Creek School Mountain Bike Skills Park | $7,500 
Cornville, AZ 

Verde Valley Wheel Fun will use PeopleForBikes’ funding to build a mountain bike skills park on school property to serve the rural school population. A youth-led project to build a fitness course will be located adjacent, providing opportunities and motivation to get students outside and active. 

Mott Park Bicycle Garden | $6,600 
Flint, MI 

An unused tennis court in this urban neighborhood park will become a new traffic garden where local youth can learn bike skills. Spearheaded by the Mott Park Neighborhood Association in collaboration with the Flint Public Art Project, this facility will resemble and reflect the streets surrounding it. 

OSPREYS Bike Rack and Bike Repair Station | $5,000 
Ocean Springs, MS 

Ocean Springs Pedestrians and Residents for Exercise and Youth Safety (OSPREYS) has been working diligently to make its community safer and more appealing for people walking and biking. This funding, matched by a contribution from the city, will be used to purchase and install eight bike racks and two bike repair stations near popular destinations. 

Ben's Bike Playground | $5,000 
Chugiak, AK 

PeopleForBikes’ grant will support the construction of the first pump track in the Anchorage area. The facility will prioritize beginner-level features to attract kids and families and is named for a founding member and beloved coach who passed away in a car crash last winter. 

MKE Modular Parklet | $4,900 
Milwaukee, WI 

The Wisconsin Bicycle Federation will use this grant to build a demonstration parklet including seating, flex space/stage area, bike parking and a small pump track. The parklet will travel to several locations, hosted by business improvement districts throughout the City of Milwaukee, before being awarded to one permanent home. 

Enabling Active Transportation for Low-Income People of All Ages and Abilities | $3,000 
Austin, TX 

Working in partnership with local nonprofits and low-income/affordable housing sites, Ghisallo Cycling Initiative will provide bikes, locks and helmets to residents and use this funding to build and install two bike parking corrals where residents can secure their new bikes. 

Do you work in the bike industry and are interested in supporting PeopleForBikes and our Industry Community Grants Program? Contact PeopleForBikes Director of Membership and Industry Engagement Rod Judd (rod@peopleforbikes.org) to enroll your company in the Employee Pro Purchase program. The more companies we have participate, the more funding we have to support amazing local projects that get more people on bikes.

Introducing Our Spring 2021 Community Grants Recipients 

The 12 projects utilize everything from community art to electric bikes and span the country from New York to Hawaii.

The Better Bike Share Partnership (BBSP) awarded $89,970 in mini-grants to 12 projects that will reach and engage traditionally underserved populations through shared micromobility. This is the sixth round of grant funding that PeopleForBikes will administer through its partner role with BBSP. 

“Better Bike Share mini-grants allow us to support and share lessons from small, innovative projects," said Zoe Kircos, director of grants and partnerships at PeopleForBikes and manager of BBSP. "We look forward to learning from these grantees and seeing how their strategies help more people access bike share systems.”

The following projects were selected to receive funding: 

Reddy E-Bike Library Ambassadors | $10,000
Shared Mobility Inc./Reddy Bikeshare, Buffalo and Niagara Falls, NY

Reddy Bikeshare, in partnership with Independent Health, will join with East Side Bike Club and the Create a Healthier Niagara Falls Collaborative to use this funding to hire, train and support four community ambassadors to help underserved residents access electric bicycles through a new bike library program.

Bike-N-Ride: Linking Bike Sharing With Transit Through Art Tours That Highlight Community Narratives | $10,000
City of Fort Lauderdale – Transportation and Mobility, Fort Lauderdale, FL

The City of Fort Lauderdale will partner with local community-based organizations to host three bike tours featuring storytelling and art. The rides will coincide with and end at a local monthly art walk event.

Savvy Cycling | $10,000
Midwest Bikeshare, Inc./Bublr Bikeshare, Milwaukee, WI

As Bublr expands into historically marginalized neighborhoods with 26 new stations, system ambassadors from those communities will offer urban bike skills classes, free helmets and a complimentary 30-day pass to local residents.

North Tulsa Expansion/African American Community Outreach | $10,000
Tulsa Bike Share/This Machine, Tulsa, OK

Five new This Machine stations will be installed in North Tulsa, a historically Black neighborhood. The expansion will be matched with promotions, events and other activities offered in partnership with community-based organizations located in the area.

People for Mobility Justice ElectroBicis in Pacoima  | $10,000
Community Partners, Los Angeles, CA

People for Mobility Justice will work with Pacoima Beautiful to make 100 electric bikes available for long-term rental to residents as part of a pilot in the Northeast San Fernando Valley. PeopleForBikes’ grant will fund classes on safe bicycling and bike maintenance, along with safety equipment such as helmets and lights.

Justice on Wheels 2021 | $8,600
Family Matters, Chicago, IL

Practice rides and events, geared towards helping residents build endurance and community, will culminate in a 15-mile intergenerational ride through the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago. Speakers at stops on the route will explore themes of transformative justice and transportation equity, with a celebration at the end. 

Biki Ambassador Project | $7,770
Bikeshare Hawaii, Honolulu, HI

Biki will focus on outreach to Native Hawaiians and other underserved communities with the launch of a new Ambassador program. In partnership with a local organization, the bike share system will recruit, hire and train 10 people from the community to promote bike share and provide feedback.

The Way We Move: Making Biking Accessible for All in Raleigh | $6,500
Oaks and Spokes, Raleigh, NC

Reaching and engaging older adults in underserved communities is the focus of the events and activities in this new program. AARP and senior living facilities will serve as partners and an intern will be hired from a local HBCU.

Roll to Recovery | $6,000
OneFifteen, Dayton, OH

Through a partnership with Bike Miami Valley, OneFifteen, an addiction recovery campus, will support the mental and physical health of patients and staff by helping them ride. In addition to placing a bike share station on the facility’s campus, the nonprofit will offer helmets and annual passes to those who complete a free cycling safety class.

Allen County Micromobility Education Program | $5,000
Thrive Allen County, Allen County, KS

With this funding, Allen County’s free bike share system will hire a local ambassador to offer free bike repair workshops to residents countywide, addressing a common barrier to increased bicycling.

Segundo Barrio Mural Bikes | $4,300
Camino Real Regional Mobility Authority, El Paso, TX

Local artists will paint seven bike share bikes inspired by the murals located in the historically significant Segundo Barrio, introducing more people to the artwork and bike share. Once completed, the painted bikes will be part of a bike share demo and gallery event in the featured neighborhood.

Share Boxes for Bike Share Racks | $1,800
Green Apple Bikes, Inc., Manhattan, KS

This completely free, volunteer-driven bike share system will add share boxes to stations in select locations, offering donated items including bicycling safety gear with funding from this grant.

Better Bike Share Partnership Awards $89,970 in Grants

Could a bunch of the country’s best cities for biking be towns that most Americans have never heard of?

That’s one unexpected implication of the PlacesForBikes City Ratings, which balances complex data from six sources to compare cities to one another based not on reputation but on factors like low-stress network connectivity, safety and documented public investment.

It definitely surprised us here at PeopleForBikes that Wausau, Wisc., came out as a better place to bike than Minneapolis, Portland, Ore., or Davis, Calif. But the whole point of a data-driven system is to discover things you didn’t expect.

And the fact is that smaller cities and towns have massive potential for biking. The main problem is actually that a lot of people haven’t realized it yet.

Small cities and towns have huge potential for good biking

“It’s comfortable, it’s fun and it’s convenient,” said Brad Sippel, bicycle and pedestrian planner in Wausau, population 39,000. “It takes me 7 minutes to get to work by bike and it takes me 7 minutes to get to work by car.”

That’s the story in a lot of small cities, said Kyle Wagenschutz, director of local innovation at PeopleForBikes — whether or not they’ve installed protected bike lanes and other dedicated low-stress infrastructure.

“There’s generally not a lot of people driving at high speeds in their communities, so they generally have really good safety records,” he said. “Their street networks have the bones of essentially a really strong bicycle network because of the low volumes, low speeds, particularly if a big state highway doesn’t run right through the middle of town. If it runs outside or loops around the city, that creates a natural sort of environment for the bicycle to occur.”

Where most small cities stand out: Momentum, not yet ridership

People in smaller cities and towns have biked for transportation since biking began. (Just ask Toto.) But one unique thing about small towns is that there isn’t much biking to work — in part because so many residents commute long distances to jobs.

Unfortunately, biking to work is the kind of biking Americans measure best. That’s part of the reason almost no small cities in the PlacesForBikes rating system do well on our “ridership” metric.

Instead, most of the small towns that topped our list stood out for a different metric: acceleration.

That’s our measure of how much investment cities are making in improving biking: 80 percent of it comes from the scale and variety of infrastructure and encouragement reported by city officials in the 15-question PlacesForBikes City Snapshot, and 20 percent comes from local public opinions about bike investments gathered by the annual PlacesForBikes Community Survey.

“For the last few years and the next few years we’ve been putting in 15 miles of path,” said David Littlejohn, the alternative transportation coordinator in Carmel, Indiana, population 92,000. Carmel landed the nation’s No. 3 rating for small cities, largely on the strength of its rapid investment in a low-stress biking network.

Because the “acceleration” score tracks progress with percentage changes year on year, cities with smaller low-stress networks, bike sharing systems and public bike parking inventory will find it easier to be recognized for acceleration. The effect is that it’s hard for any city to rest on laurels — and also that any city can muscle its way up in the ratings by working hard.

In a global marketplace, good biking is a tool for economic growth

In many small cities, the case for accelerating bike improvements is similar: economics.

“Our city council’s been behind this from the start,” said Andrew Lynch, a transportation planner for the Wausau Metropolitan Planning Organization. “And why is that? They have to be. … Smaller cities need to do anything they can to be attractive for people to stay there and people to come there. And bicycling is one of those.”

Littlejohn, the Carmel alternative transportation coordinator, agreed.

“We see a lot of benefits in biking,” he said. “We see it as a tool for economic development, to attract employees to our businesses and our headquarterses here. We see it as an amenity to our residents so they can have a healthy way to get around.”

In a suburban area like Carmel’s, Littlejohn said, densities may be increasing but biking often remains more viable than mass transit. Bikes are well-suited to suburbs simply because they’re more similar in nature to cars.

Small cities and towns have huge challenges to overcome, of course. Small tax bases make change difficult. Biking can seem alien or unserious. And as with all cities, there’s the ever-present risk of thinking that the status quo is good enough.

“The last five years there’s been a lot of activity,” said Kyle Kozar, the bike coordinator in Santa Monica, which landed the No. 2 PlacesForBikes rating for small cities in 2018. “We still have a lot of work to do.”

America’s Five Best Small Cities for Biking

In a time of crisis, the bicycle shines bright as a potential solution. For the large group of individuals living within the foster care community, the bike can mean the difference between personal independence and feeling trapped within the pressures of our current situation.

To protect our nation, the national and local government quickly made decisions to help ensure the safety of the largest number of people. Unfortunately, sometimes making decisions that benefit the masses can ostracize the marginalized. Luckily, our culture is also one of extreme generosity, and when informed of an opportunity to help, we can mobilize resources to lift up individuals who need it most.

One organization dedicated to this fight for resource allocation is the non-profit Together We Rise (TWR). Prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, TWR was the master of bringing people together. By collaborating with individuals, companies and community partners they provided those living in foster care with new bicycles, college supplies, travel cases, birthday boxes, reunification events and much more. Now that the world has changed, so must the strategy of Together We Rise. 

“One day you’re in class and people are just talking about the coronavirus and the next day you have to leave campus. I’m not like my friends who can just go home. Campus is my home, and I had one week to leave. Together We Rise is helping me with a place to stay, school and food. All these things I fought so hard to have. I am grateful they are here.” – Michelle, New York, NY

Universities across the country have closed their physical campuses. Not a huge deal for students who have been asked to move home, but earth shattering for many former and current foster youth who consider college dormitories their primary housing. Campus closures also meant students no longer had access to dining halls for food, college jobs for income and libraries for study. 

Together We Rise quickly jumped into action by tapping into their network and collecting resources to help solve these problems for displaced youth. One key element to navigating a new normal is reliable transportation, and for many foster youth, the bicycle has risen to the challenge.

Luckily, sourcing bikes isn’t anything new for TWR. Together We Rise Executive Director Gianna Dahlia commented, “Our bike build program is a standing tradition. Last year, with the help of our supporters, more than 8,000 foster youth were gifted new bikes.”

Mary Moreno from TWR added, “We provide bikes for children of all ages. The idea initially was to help kids not only learn how to ride a bike but to help with transportation. As older youth move through the system, a lack of transportation may impact their ability to gain part-time employment or visit their siblings. Having transportation opens doors and builds confidence within each child.”

Recognizing the hard work Together We Rise has been doing, Schwinn (Pacific Cycle) wanted to get involved. Last year, the teams collaborated on two donation bike build events at their respective headquarters in Brea, CA and Madison, WI. The events benefited over 200 deserving children in the surrounding communities. Going forward, Schwinn has pledged $125,000 worth of bicycles to continue the great work of Together We Rise and get more youth on bikes. 

Pacific Cycle President Nando Zucchi commented, “We’ve always believed the bicycle can change lives. That’s never been more apparent than through the work of Together We Rise. It was astounding to see their impact before the coronavirus outbreak, and we’re excited to help them find solutions in this new landscape.”

Schwinn and Together We Rise have partnered to help support marginalized youth living in foster care. However, they can’t do it alone and they’re asking for your help. If you’d like to make a difference in the lives of those mentioned in this story, you can!

Follow any of the following resource links to find more information on what’s needed and how you can help:
TWR COVID- 19 Progress Update
Donate towards groceries, utilities, housing or BIKES! 

How COVID-19 Has Impacted the Foster Care Community and What Bikes Can Do to Help

Due to the constantly changing dimensions of the COVID-19 crisis, we encourage you to follow all current CDC guidelines as well as local travel advisories and recommendations. Take care of yourselves and loved ones. We’re all in this together.

The results are in — how did your city rank?

PeopleForBikes is proud to announce the third annual PlacesForBikes City Ratings — a data-driven analysis evaluating and identifying the best U.S. cities for bicycling. This campaign not only helps showcase the cities leading the nation in making biking better for everyone, but also provides key insights on how other cities can work to do the same.

“Our City Ratings create a holistic picture of bicycling in cities based on measurable factors,” says Rebecca Davies, PeopleForBikes’ network + mapping specialist. “Top scorers are cities of all types and geographies who have succeeded in different ways, including cities with strong historical investments in active transportation as well as cities pursuing ambitious plans to rapidly implement high-quality bicycle networks.”

Overall City Ratings are shaped by five key indicators: Ridership (how many people are riding bikes?), Safety (how safe is it to ride bikes?), Network (how easy is it for people to bike where they want to go?), Reach (how well does the network serve all members of the community?) and Acceleration (how fast is the bike network growing and/or improving?). These indicators are ranked on a scale of 1-5 and weighed equally to provide a city’s comprehensive City Ratings score.

We rated 567 cities in 2020. Top overall performers were boosted by high Network and Acceleration scores. Here’s how they ranked:


The 2020 PlacesForBikes City Ratings Top Five:


What makes these cities so great for biking?

Since its early days as a California Mission town, San Luis Obispo (or SLO, for short) has worked hard to preserve a compact urban core with a greenbelt surrounding the city. “We’ve striven to avoid sprawl, foster a vibrant downtown and make sure that housing, jobs, schools, recreation and shopping are not too far apart from each other,” says Adam Fukushima, SLO’s active transportation manager. The first in his role, Fukushima works solely on bicycle and pedestrian improvements in the city. 

Since 2014, San Luis Obispo has had a policy in place to spend at least 20% of its transportation expenditures on bicycle improvements. One priority project has been the development of a backbone city bike path, reaching from north to south to connect the local university (California Polytechnic State University) with downtown and residential neighborhoods.

Cal Poly doesn’t allow first and second year students to have cars on campus. This rule, plus the city’s proximity to parks and open space, helps the city get more people on bikes, says Fukushima. “In contrast to many communities where you have to put your bike in the car to drive to a trail, we have many fabulous mountain biking trails and paths close to housing. This has been the jumping off point for many people to not only use a bike for recreation, but try it out for commuting as well.”

In Madison, the scenic bike route is often the fastest route. With a downtown located on a narrow isthmus between two lakes, getting where you need to go on time and enjoying the beauty of your ride aren’t mutually exclusive. Several shared-use paths provide easy access throughout the city and the 936-acre University of Wisconsin campus.

“What really makes Madison a great place to ride is that there are lots of other people out riding all year round,” says Madison’s Pedestrian Bicycle Administrator Renee Callaway. “Commuters, recreational riders, errand runners, family bikers — you’re never alone when you get out on your bike.”

To continue making biking easier and safer, Madison invests in bike underpasses, rail-trail conversions and long-distance trail connections. As a city that sees nearly four feet of snow every winter, Madison is also heavily invested in year-round maintenance of their bike network and has designated primary routes across town that are cleared and ready-to-ride by 7 a.m. Monday-Friday. 

“Bicycling is in our DNA,” says Rob Dayton, Santa Barbara’s transportation planning and parking manager. “Before automobiles were around, it was the bicycle clubs that lobbied to pave streets for bicycling.” Santa Barbara even had the first multimodal transportation in California — a mule-drawn trolley car that included a bike rack on the back for turn-of-the-century cyclists to hang their big-wheel Penny Farthing bikes. 

As early as the 1960s, the city recognized how heavy vehicle congestion and traffic plagued their southern coastal neighbor Los Angeles. This prompted Santa Barbara to take action to embrace the bicycle. More recently, some two lane roads in town were reduced to one lane for vehicle traffic, with the other dedicated to bike travel. Road repaving projects that included the addition of a bike lane quickly helped the size of Santa Barbara’s bike network skyrocket. The addition of bike racks throughout the downtown also helped boost the embrace of bicycles. “No matter where you want to go, if you ride a bike, you have a front row parking spot,” says Dayton. The implementation of bicycle boulevards, streets with low motorized traffic volumes and speeds, designated and designed to give bicycle travel priority, have also been a key part of Santa Barbara’s embrace of bicycling.

Thanks to the growth of California’s Active Transportation Planning grants program, Santa Barbara has invested $40 million in bike improvements across the city over the last five years, with many new projects, including a city-wide electric bike share program, on the horizon. “I think Santa Barbara really has something to offer everyone,” says Sam Furtner, the city’s mobility coordinator. “Whether you’re learning to ride a bike or looking for world-class road rides overlooking the ocean, we’ve got you covered.”

The relatively dense and compact nature of our nation’s capital makes biking one of the most convenient ways to traverse the city. 90 miles of bike lanes connect to 60 miles of trails, with D.C. serving as the regional hub of a 500-plus mile trail network that connects residents to jobs, neighborhoods and parks in the District, Maryland and Virginia. The city was an early adopter of protected bike lanes: 12 miles have been built since 2010 and a campaign continues to add 20 miles by the end of this year. The 5,000-bike strong regional bike share program Capital Bikeshare with more than 600 stations also allows D.C. residents to easily transition between biking, walking and transit.

When it comes to improving safety for cyclists, Washington D.C. recognized that education is key. “All D.C. Public School second graders are required to complete a fun, interactive course about how to safely ride a bike, including a supervised ride around their local neighborhood,” says Mariam Nabizad, public affairs specialist for the District’s Department of Transportation (DDOT). “In addition, the Washington Area Bicyclist Association educates kids and adults of every ability level in courses like Summer Bike Camp, Learn to Ride and Confident City Cycling.”

In 1976, a group of University of Montana students organized a ride across the U.S. to celebrate the bicentennial. They were eventually joined by more than  4,000 people in what became the first transAmerica group ride. After the ride, several organizers stayed in town and continued to promote bicycle travel, launching the national non-profit Bikecentennial (now Adventure Cycling). Missoula has had a soft spot for biking ever since. 

“Missoula’s successes would not be possible without a comprehensive understanding of the benefits of biking that has been reached through decades of work, slowly creating the culture,” says Ben Weiss, the city’s bicycle/pedestrian program manager, referencing the groundbreaking efforts of his predecessors. “Over this time, we’ve worked hard to build the appropriate facilities to make biking safe, comfortable and convenient for people of all ages and abilities.”

Despite not having the budget of larger cities, Missoula constructed one of the first modern protected bike lanes through their downtown over a decade ago, and continues to build and connect their network of bike trails. The backbone of the city’s bike network is their commuter trail system, which traverses town east to west, easily connecting residents to work, school and play. Recent successes include the connection of a six-block gap in one of their main bike routes, the Bitterroot Trail, which included the implementation of the state of Montana’s first designated bike traffic signal. Missoula recently adopted the city’s first Bicycle Facilities Master Plan, which includes a comprehensive vision of a connected bike network accessible by riders of all ages and abilities.

2020 City Ratings: Top 5 U.S. Cities for Bikes

Why are college towns good for biking? 

Working together, a city and a university can create a more complete network for everyone to take advantage of.

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People for Bikes City Ratings: College Towns

As we take a look at our City Ratings top-25, there are clearly some lessons that we can learn from college towns about supporting infrastructure. Here are some traits that allow for college towns to be great places for biking:

Parking: many colleges don’t allow students to have or park cars on campus. This automatically leaves students with the issue of getting around without a car. Bikes often become the mode of choice.

Money: even if students are allowed to have a car on campus, many are operating on a budget that makes a bike more attractive than a car that requires gas, insurance, and upkeep. Also, many colleges collect parking fees on campus and direct those funds to transit.

Support: college campuses tend to be filled with people — professors and students — representing a diversity of experiences in cities, domestic and abroad. This improves the chances of those people supporting bike infrastructure where they live and teach/learn.

Connectivity: students and faculty need and want access from campus to downtown areas, which increases the likelihood of a connected network. With more people riding around campus and throughout town, there’s a better chance that local businesses have advocated for safe routes for improved access.


Let’s take a look at some of our highest rated college towns from the 2019 City Ratings.

University of Oregon, Eugene: Overall City Rating — 3.4

PeaceHealth Rides — Eugene’s Bikeshare program — originated on campus with the University of Oregon’s bike program and funding from the student government. The city then received funding for a city-wide bikeshare system, and the final implementation was through a partnership between the city, the local transit agency, and the university.

According to Kelsey Moore, the University of Oregon Bike Program Coordinator and member of Eugene’s Active Transportation Committee, each year they include students on the committee, and hand out out safety messaging from the city and state departments of transportation. These relationships help everyone involved feel like they’re part of something united, working to make a better place to live.

 University of Wisconsin, Madison: Overall City Rating — 3.2

Renee Callaway, Pedestrian Bicycle Administrator for the City of Madison Traffic Engineering, says that the city partners with the University of Wisconsin in several ways. Because the university doesn’t offer parking to students, there’s a “captive audience of people who need to get around without cars,” she says. Although the lack of parking is due mostly to space constraints, this has created a bike culture throughout campus and town. And because there are so many people on bikes, there’s an overall safety-in-numbers feel.

According to Callaway, the university and the city work together to create a safer place to live, namely at intersections that were identified as dangerous in a crash study. Callaway says, “The university and downtown are interwoven. We have several off-street paths, and we’ve worked really hard with the university to improve street crossings.” Madison’s efforts to improve intersection safety comes mainly from a dedicated budget for annual bike and pedestrian improvements. Callaway says that having funds available for small projects makes a huge difference in keeping the city up to date. Such projects include green treatments on the streets, rectangular rapid-flash beacons, and signage at crossings, which all contribute to people feeling safer.

Ohio University, Athens: Overall City Rating — 3.0

Sam Crowl, Associate Director of the Office of Sustainability, says that with a student body that makes up 75% of the town’s population during the semester, the relationship between Ohio University and Athens is crucial. “Collaboration has to happen for the health of the university and the city — we’re proud of the strong relationship between administrators and city officials.” Athens mayor, Steve Patterson, is a former OU professor and continues to take an active role on campus.

Crowl says a 21-mile bikeway that now connects the whole city, the county and even other towns, started on the campus of Ohio University. This offers students, those who work at the university, and the entire community a safe and protected option for recreational riding. The Office of Sustainability at OU also offers bicycle valet service for home football games. The stadium is right off the bikeway, so it’s a great way to encourage the community to ride to the games.

At the end of every school year, OU holds a “re-bike” salvaged bike sale, which allows people from the community to purchase an affordable bicycle that’s been abandoned on campus. Crowl is hopeful that the university can continue to encourage more people to use bikes as transportation. Now that Ohio allows e-bikes on paths, that could be the next big thing to hit OU’s campus.

North Carolina Central University, Durham: Overall City Rating — 2.7

Working together, a city and a university can create a more complete network for everyone to take advantage of. The city of Durham works with several schools to increase ridership in the area. Dale McKeel, City of Durham MPO, says relationships between the universities and the city can lead to projects getting approved and finished in a more timely manner.

Durham is currently working to connect the North Carolina Central University campus to a recreational and commuting trail in the area. McKeel says, “NCCU staff have enthusiastically supported a proposed bicycle boulevard to connect the campus to the American Tobacco Trail.” NCCU has also partnered with the city and the NC Department of Transportation on a recently completed 4-lane to 3-lane roadway reconfiguration on Fayetteville Street on the south side of the campus.

Recommendations for joining efforts with a college campus:

Plan events — such as a slow-roll ride with refreshments — that are open to the campus and the community. Try one on campus and one in a central location.

Get your bikeshare involved with a campus payment plan.

Include students in your transportation committee meetings.

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