San Francisco was the most bicycle friendly city of the United States in 2022, according to new LawnStarter analysis which ranked 200 major U.S. cities on bike-friendliness on 24 metrics across five categories - access, safety, climate, bike shops/communities and events. The highest possible score for bike-friendliness was 100 with factors such as the number of bike trails, the availability of bike-sharing programs and access to repair shops pushing a location up the ranking.
Even though San Francisco has hilly terrain that is challenging for cyclists, it had the highest score of the listing, mainly due to its broad cycling community and favorable climate. Minneapolis and New York came second and third, respectively.
Bigger cities tended to rank higher on their list. This is partly due to making higher investments in infrastructure in order to support their higher population densities. For example, cities such as San Francisco, Denver, Minneapolis and New York all scored highly in terms of access. One exception to the rule is Eugene, Oregon - which is a smaller city - but ranked third for access, fifth for community and eighth for safety, nationwide, likely due to cycling being a more popular lifestyle there.
Others were held back from reaching their full potential by climates that tend to dissuade people from heading out on the bike. That was a big problem in the south of the country where cities tended to score poorly, primarily as a result of difficult climates with ample hot days mixed with heavy rainfall. Montgomery, Alabama, Murfreesboro, Tennessee, Pasadena, Texas, Jackson, Mississippi and finally Baton Rouge, Louisiana were ranked the least bicycle-friendly cities in the country in 2022.
