BOULDER, Colo. (BRAIN) PeopleForBikes released its 2025 City Ratings on Tuesday, using data to rank the best places for cycling globally. In the U.S., Mackinac Island, Michigan; Davis, California; and Brooklyn, New York, led the way in small, medium, and large city categories, respectively.
Internationally, London and Delft, South Holland, Netherlands, topped the small and medium city categories, respectively. Paris and The Hague, South Holland, Netherlands, tied in the large city category.
In its eighth ratings, 2,901 cities were evaluated. The score gives communities the opportunity to measure progress, identify shortcomings, and prioritize projects to make cycling safer and more accessible, according to PeopleForBikes.
This year, data is integrated from PeopleForBikes' Great Bike Infrastructure Project, tracking real-time progress of the country's thousands of infrastructure projects. The ratings now feature projects like protected bike lands and neighborhood greenways from proposal to completion.
"City Ratings data proves what we've known all along: building great bike infrastructure leads to better, safer places to ride," said Jenn Dice, PeopleForBikes president and CEO. "With 234 U.S. cities now scoring 50 or above up from just 33 in 2019 it's clear that dedicated investments deliver real results. By tracking projects from idea to implementation, we're helping communities focus their efforts and accelerate change. Every city can become a great place to ride we're here to help them get there."
Each city receives a score of 0-100. A low score (0-20) indicates a weak bike network (the connected system of protected bike lanes, off-street paths, slow shared streets, and safe crossings), meaning a lack of safe bikeways or gaps in the network. A high score (80-100) indicates that most common destinations are accessible by safe, comfortable bike routes.
City Ratings scores are generated using the Bicycle Network Analysis, a data-driven methodology that evaluates how safe and connected bike networks are for all ages and abilities. Scores are based on six key factors represented in the acronym SPRINT:
- Safe speeds.
- Protected bike lanes.
- Reallocated space.
- Intersection treatments.
- Network connections.
- Trusted data.
According to PeopleForBikes, a key metric is the number of communities achieving a City Ratings score of 50 or higher. This signals a city has reached a critical point in its support of people who ride bikes and has the momentum for sustained, long-term improvements to make cycling better over time.
The top three cities making the largest improvements in the past year are Park City, Utah (48 to 61); Richfield, Minnesota (25 to 53); and Phoenixville, Pennsylvania (21 to 50).
