Best biking cities in the U.S. of A.: Chicago on the sixth place

The article is here (Active.com)

Just an observation: all the cities above Chicago on the list have less protected bike lanes, and two of those below—more. Hmm...

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Permalink Reply by S on May 18, 2016 at 4:24am

Some of the criteria is a bit shady (time required to bike commute, number of rentals on zillow that mention bike storage). Not sure how useful the rankings are without a clear description of how the rankings are calculated.

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Permalink Reply by Jim Reho on May 18, 2016 at 5:53am

It's an interesting article. I don't think Zillow is any big expert on cycling, though. I'd be interested in a ranking that factors in the condition of the city's roads themselves. Chicago prides itself on its bikability, but its roads and streets are about the worst I've seen, which detracts from the cycling experience safety-wise. Some of the bike lanes themselves remind me of the debris field of the Titanic, too.

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Permalink Reply by Lisa Curcio on May 18, 2016 at 7:38am

Last Saturday, Anne Alt and I were doing a pre-ride of the route for this Saturday's Women Bike Chicago/Slow Roll/Breakthrough Urban Ministries ride on the west side. Bike lanes were flooded along Washington, Independence, and Sacramento. Bike lane markings on Independence were completely gone so that there was no way one could tell that the right lane is actually a bike lane. The one bright spot was that the curb-protected lanes on Sacramento in Douglas Park were relatively free of debris and glass.