Bike Score Now Available for More Than 150 U.S. Cities
Minneapolis is the most bikeable city in the U.S., according to the latest ranking by Walk Score®, a Redfin company. With a Bike Score of 81.3, Minneapolis has a strong lead over San Francisco (75.1) and Portland (72.0).
In celebration of Bike to Work Week and National Bike Month, Walk Score today updated and expanded its Bike Score ranking to a total of 154 U.S. cities and more than 10,000 neighborhoods. Below we rank the 20 most bikeable cities with populations of 300,000 or more.
Bike Score Ranking of Large U.S. Cities
| Rank | City | Bike Score |
| 1 | Minneapolis, MN | 81.3 |
| 2 | San Francisco, CA | 75.1 |
| 3 | Portland, OR | 72.0 |
| 4 | Denver, CO | 71.3 |
| 5 | Boston, MA | 70.3 |
| 6 | Chicago, IL | 70.2 |
| 7 | Washington, D.C. | 69.5 |
| 8 | Sacramento, CA | 68.9 |
| 9 | Tucson, AZ | 67.9 |
| 10 | Philadelphia, PA | 67.5 |
| 11 | Long Beach, CA | 66.4 |
| 12 | New York, NY | 65.1 |
| 13 | Seattle, WA | 63.0 |
| 14 | Oakland, CA | 60.9 |
| 15 | Aurora, CO | 60.8 |
| 16 | New Orleans, LA | 60.1 |
| 17 | Miami, FL | 59.7 |
| 18 | Albuquerque, NM | 59.6 |
| 19 | Mesa, AZ | 58.5 |
| 20 | Santa Ana, CA | 57.1 |
“Biking is central to the healthy Minneapolis lifestyle and to a lot of people’s decisions about where to live in and around the city,” said James Garry, a Redfin agent and avid biker in Minneapolis. “In the past year, several of my clients have chosen to buy smaller houses in South Minneapolis rather than larger, similarly priced ones in the suburbs, simply so they could bike to work during the week and around Lake Harriet on weekends.”
More Bike Scores!
A handful of smaller cities didn’t make the list but deserve recognition. All college towns, they boast some of the country’s highest Bike Scores:
- Cambridge, MA (92.8)
- Davis, CA (89.3)
- Berkeley, CA (88.8)
- Boulder, CO (86.2)
- Santa Cruz, CA (83.8), also a 2015 new addition to Bike Score
Bike Score’s expansion means people now will be able to search for bikeable places to live (and visit) in more than 30 new cities, including Providence, RI (66.9), Baltimore (56.1), Detroit (55.0) and Fort Lauderdale (53.6). Many thanks to the local government officials in the newly added cities for providing the data used to compute the scores.
Better Infrastructure, Better Bike Scores
Thanks to investments in infrastructure such as protected bike lanes and networks of bike paths, several cities saw big increases in their Bike Scores since the 2013 ranking. On average, cities that ranked in the top 20 saw an increase of more than two Bike Score points. Chicago’s Bike Score increased by almost nine full points, from 61.5 in 2013 to 70.2 today. In the past two years, the Chicago Department of Transportation has launched and grown the Divvy bike share system and expanded its on-street bike network to include more than 225 miles of bike lanes and routes. Expect the city’s score to climb in the next five years as Mayor Emanuel’s Chicago Streets for Cycling Plan 2020 includes completion of a 645-mile network of on-street bikeways by 2020. Many Chicagoans are already considering bike-friendliness when choosing a place to live.
“Many of my clients don’t own cars,” said Clayton Jirak, a Redfin agent and cycling proponent in Chicago. “They search for condo buildings with dedicated, secure bike rooms in proximity to bike lanes and major trails around Chicago. Our diverse transportation options have made Chicagoans less auto-centric and created a more bike-friendly city.”
In San Francisco too, cyclists have seen more protected bike lanes added over the past couple years, reflected in a five-point Bike Score increase from 70.0 in 2013 to 75.1 today. And there are more to come, as the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) last month announced its commitment to start construction on more than 24 miles of bike infrastructure improvements.
Looking for a good place to ride a bike? Click here for Walk Score’s complete ranking of more than 150 cities and 10,000 neighborhoods. If you’re looking to move to a more bikeable place, Redfin offers Bike Score information about homes for sale across the U.S. Renters can search apartments by commute time on Walk Score and find places to live within an easy bike ride to work.
Methodology
Bike Score measures whether a location is good and safe for biking on a scale from 0 – 100 based on four equally weighted components:
- Bike lanes
- Hills
- Destinations and road connectivity
- Share of local workers’ commutes traveled by bicycle
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