Title says it all. I am curious on folks thoughts on the safest, cyclist friendly towns in the US. Here in Nashville the traffic is growing daily and yet another cyclist was hit this weekend on the Natchez Trace which is by far the safest place to ride and where I spend a lot of time. While really small towns in rural areas with less population can be ideal, they are not realistic for a lot of us professionally. What I’d be interested to hear about are larger or mid-sized cities where there is respect for cyclist and places to get out and ride such that cars and bike can co-exist.
What I’d be interested to hear about are larger or mid-sized cities where there is respect for cyclist and places to get out and ride such that cars and bike can co-exist.
I biked in a lot of places in America and was hit by a truck on a remote road in Oregon. I don’t think there is a place that involves cars and bikes that is safe. It only takes one person to be distracted and with so many distractions, it’s just going to get worse. One distracted driver can make the difference between a city being safe or dangerous for cyclists.
If you want a safe town in terms of cars, you have to get off the road because drivers are not going to change.
Been in salt lake city for about two and a half months and find it pretty nice here so far
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I lived in a quite a few different places over the years and I felt the safest in Colorado Springs and Seattle, primarily because both offer significant trail (paved and off-road) systems and a robust cycling community. Southern California was ok. I currently live in Texas and I feel pretty safe when I go out and ride but I have a rather unique situation. I get the feeling the Dallas suburbs are not all that safe for cyclists, but there are a lot of people who ride.
Madison is pretty awesome. We do have some issues and have been some deaths, but I think that’s partly because there are so many riders out there. It’s a very solid biking community year round and all cycling types from Road, tri, MB, Cross…
I agree that CO springs was pretty good, but some sections were really bad. Black Forest was getting scarier and scarier before I left (I got hit from behind there). I never had a bad experience in rural TX as car as cars go, but the dogs were crazy. The East coast was the worst of anywhere I’ve been. Narrow roads, high speeds, lots of dogs, I never felt safe riding in rural NC, but at least the traffic was pretty low.
SoCal seems much much better. I’ve been in SB for 3 years and moved here after visiting for a few weeks because the cycling was so good and so safe. Bike lanes everywhere, low speed limits, low traffic, and drivers who are used to us. In fact I never had a run in with a driver until today and she was upset that our group was using her dead end road to do climbing repeats on.
Some locals rave about the Bay area, but the roads were pretty narrow and traffic-ey for my taste.
Mackinac Island, Michigan. No cars. Still, gotta dodge the horses and tourists.
I’m going with none. NYC has a great bike route and we see what happened recently.
The only “safe” place is on the compu-trainer. That said, we also commute to work in our car and that is not safe either.
So take the risk and ride outside or don’t. My guess is the chance you will die riding your bike is statistically zero so do what you enjoy. Of course your odds of winning the lottery is also statistically zero and people do win.
For training purpose, Washington DC, assuming you can get to Hain’s Point safely.
Yes, it’s a mindnumbingly boring place to ride; yes, there are hordes of tourists for the cherry blossoms; and yes, the cops may ticket you for running stop signs, but the place is surprisingly conducive to bike training, and I miss it. Cars don’t usually drive faster than 30 mph, and it’s a one-way circle. In terms of speed differentials and such, this is about as good as you’ll get. The place is mostly deserted at all times from late August to late March, and there are very few visitors in the warmer days from dawn to 10 a.m. and from 5pm to midnight.
Once upon a time, I would have put 9W in NJ/NY for its wide shoulders, but there are some seriously hauling semi trucks on a portion of that road. Central Park is also good early mornings, late evenings, and at all time during the cooler months.
I would say there’s also a difference between biking say in a downtown area for a commute where you really are mixing in a lot with traffic vs say a long training ride where you are less likely to choose a route where there is a ton of traffic unless you are like to have a dedicated bike lane. The cities I’ve lived in since I started cycling more are Tampa and Charleston. I wouldn’t consider either particularly cyclist friendly with Charleston being not particularly cyclist friendly. But Tampa has a fair number of good cycling paths where you can get long rides in. But I wouldn’t want to be mixing with traffic in Tampa.
For reference I think its hard to find a much more dangerous town than Nashville for either cycling or running. Was harassed by drivers more over a summer training there than 4 years in Miami.
In place like Miami drivers can be y aggressive to all road users, distracted or both but you can cycle defensively and be generally safe. In other cities like Indianapolis I found just increasing my visibility made a huge difference in terms of alerting drivers who aren’t expecting cyclists. But in TN I found these approaches just make you a easy target. My experience was TN drivers were openly hostile to cyclists and runners in terms of intentionally swerving, throwing things etc. I left rather than trying to figure out a solution.
Unfortunately, there are asshole drivers everywhere. Here in the Phoenix area, we have lots of wide roads with ample bike lanes. Still get jerks who pass too closely or worse, however. That being said, it’s better than places that offer no place to ride other than narrow lanes filled with cars.
Portland, Oregon
Seattle, WA
There’s a large population of cyclists and cycling friendly roads where drivers expect to encounter riders
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That being said, it’s better than places that offer no place to ride other than narrow lanes filled with cars.
I did a bicycle tour around the world and cycled in places like Mumbai, Bangkok, Jakarta and Istanbul. All full of cars and not exactly biker friendly. However, I felt far safer there than when I left the cities and was on roads where the speed limit went up. There you now have high speeds and distracted drivers.
I was hit by a pick up truck traveling 60 mph on a quiet road outside of Bend. By all accounts that should have been a safe road but it only took 1 guy to make it unsafe.
I lived in DC for 5 years and very much agree about Haines Point. You could also get out of the city and out to some rural Maryland roads for longer rides fairly quickly as well. I also used to live in NYC and road 9W all the time and concur that it is not what it was in terms of safety for cyclists.
So far, for decent sized metro areas we have:
Seattle, WA
Portland, OR
Madison, WI
Salt Lake City, UT
Colorado Springs, CO
Any other nominations? I’d be interest in any part of the country but particularly places you can ride year round or close to it
By the way, I agree there are no cities that are going to be completely safe. I was more trying to get at which places are the safest given the inherent risk of riding a bike in a world with cars.
I lived in DC for 5 years and very much agree about Haines Point. You could also get out of the city and out to some rural Maryland roads for longer rides fairly quickly as well. I also used to live in NYC and road 9W all the time and concur that it is not what it was in terms of safety for cyclists.
So far, for decent sized metro areas we have:
Seattle, WA
Portland, OR
Madison, WI
Salt Lake City, UT
Colorado Springs, CO
Any other nominations? I’d be interest in any part of the country but particularly places you can ride year round or close to it
By the way, I agree there are no cities that are going to be completely safe. I was more trying to get at which places are the safest given the inherent risk of riding a bike in a world with cars.
You don’t consider Phoenix to be a decent sized metro area?
Portland, Oregon
Seattle, WA
There’s a large population of cyclists and cycling friendly roads where drivers expect to encounter riders
I live in the northwest and I’ll agree that the paved trail networks up here are very nice for cyclists.
The drawback is that being this far north, you don’t get enough daylight hours in the winter. So if you’re commuting, you’re probably in the dark at least one way.
Redmond, WA - Bicycle capital of the northwest. Great bike trails and bike paths.
Redmond, WA - Bicycle capital of the northwest. Great bike trails and bike paths.
Ya, i know you have the velodrome and lots of cyclists, but don’t you also get rained on almost every day from Oct to May??? I’ve heard it’s just a light drizzle most of the time but still, riding in the rain 8 mon/yr just does not sound all that appetizing to me.
Of all the century rides and other local cycling events that I’ve participated in, I only got rained on once at the end of Feb.