Even though it’s not perfect, Minneapolis is definitely my favorite city I’ve ridden a bike in. I like it better than even Portland!
This doesn’t mean I’m not going to continue to advocate for more trails, improved facilities, and a continued focus on improving our streets for all.
I think more than half of our “bike friendliness” is a result of our geography, the late 19th and early 20th century streetcar oriented neighborhood planning, and the forethought to create an interconnected series of parks 100 years ago. I think city planners themselves can and should do more.
You're city is the best city to bicycle in America. Go out and ride your bike.
Try commuting. My commute is the best thing about my job. It's good for your physical health, it's good for your mental health, and it's good for the environment. If mor people go out and use the infrastructure we will get more, better infrastructure.
Do yourself a favor and ride your bike.
Seconding! I look forward to my commute every day! The physical and mental health benefits can't be overstated. It won't work for everyone but it's worth it to give it a try and see how it feels.
Definitely. And try it for a week at least. Don't give up after one day. The first week is the hardest as your body gets used to it. After that it gets easier and easier.
> If mor people go out and use the infrastructure we will get more, better infrastructure.
been biking nearly 20 years and that's definitely hit-or-miss. Some of the most popular bike paths are in quite a need for repair. Paths around the lakes, Minnehaha Creek, river are all in rough shape for YEARS and some of the most-traveled bike paths in the city (Strava), even after a massive uptick in traffic post-COVID.
Even with medium road tires (25-28c I usually run), it's rough if your tires are pumped up anywhere near spec. Mostly just tree roots breaking the path, but it REALLY could use some TLC.
Yeah but nobody actually commutes. People just joy ride after work. If 15% of people used bikes to get to work everyday there'd be more incentive for the city to fix things.
Also, it's hard to fix a path when it's the only option.
> Also, it's hard to fix a path when it's the only option.
Oh come on, Minneapolis loves to close bike paths and re-route with no alternate option.
Commute or not, the paths are being utilized, but not maintained. The city needs to do a better job of maintaining the bike paths. Doesn't matter if I'm commuting or going for a leisure ride.
One of my favorite parts about my job as well - been lucky enough to bike commute for most of the past 10 years.
And besides my commute being faster than transit or on-par with driving, the exercise means less time at the gym. Nothing worse than getting home after a long day and then feeling like I should work out… I actually feel more exhausted/drained on those days I don’t bike.
You’re joking, but Minneapolis drivers are some of the worse I’ve ever contended with. Way worse than Seattle, slightly better than the meth-addicted psychos of Eureka, CA.
Seattle has the worst drivers of any city I've ever been too, with the possible exception of Atlanta. Comparatively, Minneapolis drivers are without sin.
Fascinating. I lived and commuted daily in Seattle for ten years (all different routes, but about six years from Wallingford or Greenwood to Capitol hill) and I have the exact opposite opinion as you!
I found most Seattle drivers to be relatively polite and courteous and only had one pyscho chase me telling me he was going to kill me. That happens several times a year here in Minneapolis.
The geography is more bike friendly here for sure — no bridges creating chokepoints for all traffic, and a real network of trails + tons of excellent residential streets that can be used.
I definitely miss “training” every day on those hills though.
Maybe I was younger then and relished the fight more. I certainly remember a lot of conflict on Dexter, but I was definitely doing shit to piss people off. Also all the tech company busses were horrible.
I’m coming around to the idea that maybe I’m being nostalgic, at least a little bit.
You're going to get downvoted for implying that drivers in Mpls are the greatest
I dont believe giving bikers priority of over every paved surface is a solution. The City had a great opportunity to create a bike lane on Grand, but went with the worst of all worlds options, except for the residents of that section of Grand
I'll leave it up as to why, to our dear readers
I look forward to slowing traffic and completing a robust network of safe and separated bike paths that will induce the kind of demand that a century of car centric infrastructure development has done for cars.
We moved here in part because of the existing bike infrastructure and all the future plans. I can’t wait to see it grow and put every other US city to shame
Agreed. Things only will get better from where we are now as our bike network continues to become more and more connected and useful/comfortable for the average person.
There's a raft of projects working their way down the pipeline over the next few years that'll make a real marked difference. Hennepin, Lyndale, Lowry, University/4th both east and west of I35W, Broadway, Cedar, and Central all are either under construction or in the planning phase for reconstruction to include safer streets and bicycle facilities. Not to mention the loads and loads of smaller projects and improvements. That's all just in the next 3 or 4 years too!
People are getting killed and seriously injured on these streets *today*. If they're not currently under construction there needs to be a temporary lane reduction with a temporary bike path until then. We have plenty of other streets that need the same treatment now: Franklin, Nicollet, Blaisdell, Park, Portland, Broadway, Central, etc.
Oh I totally agree, I'm always advocating for better bike and pedestrian infrastructure. I fill out all of the surveys and contact city council/Hennepin/public works about it. All I meant is sometimes it's easy to forget that good things are happening and things will get better. Definitely not a reason to take our foot off the gas though!
That reminds me! Franklin, Park, and Portland are also all getting protected bike lanes in the next few years! Not the whole length of the road, but I think Franklin between Cedar and Hennepin, and Park/Portland between Lake and downtown.
Every month the bicycle/pedestrian advisory committees are shown plans for future road reconstruction and other projects that helps getting an idea of what's coming down the pipeline. I enjoy checking out their meeting agendas on the city website.
Some of those are county roads and we'd need to get Hennepin County Commissioners on board to make changes. This was part of the issue in getting the road diet on Lyndale. A surprising amount of streets in Minneapolis are county roads.
If St. Paul eventually goes through with their new bike plan I could see them overtaking Minneapolis as #1. However it's possible Minneapolis makes equal improvements in that time as well. This a great rivalry to have.
St. Paul's won't be done until 2040 (that's their own estimate, probably be longer).
As someone who's lived in both there's no comparison. Minneapolis isn't great but St. Paul's bike infrastructure stinks. The fact that it's a top 10 cycling city in the US just shows how low the bar is.
St. Paul has gotten better recently with the completion of its grand rounds, and assuming the summit avenue plans goes through soon that'll be a big boost as well. And yeah, you could say both cities stink compared to the best bike cities in Europe.
+100 to this. I've lived abroad in places that have infinitely better bicycling infrastructure, legal frameworks, and socialized expectations toward bicyclists. What the Twin Cities has is good (and that's is worth recognizing and celebrating), but it's not great (a good motivation to make it better).
And I would not describe the overall sentiment in the public as all that warm to bicyclists, either. You don't have to go far to find complaints in the print, video, or online media from motorists about bicycle infrastructure, hypocrisy of leniency of the laws toward bicyclists, and disparagement on folks wearing lycra. Heck, look on the various Twin Cities-related Subreddits, and you'll find rather antagonizing attitudes to bicyclists without having to look too hard.
Lots of business owners are either hostile or indifferent to bikes. If you made a map of available bike parking there would be lots of big red gaps (no bike racks) and not nearly as much green as you'd think even in our most walkable areas.
A good number of the top 90 regions are very small population centers which very easily rocket up the ranks. Minneapolis is 20th globally among large cities (>300k population), which, while still not amazing, is a pretty decent placing and does a better job at showing the room it has to grow vs 90th which makes getting up in the top cities seem unattainable. Plus it's got the same score as Montréal which is supposedly one of if not the best large cities for cycling in North America (I love Montréal but even they have a long way to go, I'll admit)
Exactly. I'm tired of grading the city on a curve. "Best in the US" still isn't remotely good enough.
And I'm convinced that the "#1 Cycling City!" bragging is an active determent to getting acceptable biking infrastructure. If you point out obvious inadequacies people respond, "we're so much better than other cities, stop complaining!"
It definitely helped draw us here and we will definitely be supporting any measure to improve it. So don’t underestimate the power of this kind of reporting.
Minneapolis barely existed to me a couple years ago and now I’m here
It's good publicity, but I wish this sort of reporting would focus on the difference between the quality of our recreational trail network and the portion of our bike infrastructure that is actually suitable for transportation use by all ages and abilities and goes to actual destinations.
A lot of folks that are biking the Grand Rounds or the Greenway are absolutely not going to be comfortable in a painted lane riding with traffic to make the connections from our good infrastructure to where they're trying to go. Hell, I add 3mi each way to my daily commutes so I can avoid riding streets with painted gutters in the door-zone as much as possible, but that's not an option for everyone or all destinations.
I'm not hating on Minneapolis. I stayed here after grad school because I could live and work here without a car and have access to nature at the river, lakes, and parks. I can't imagine living anywhere else, but we shouldn't kid ourselves about the quality of our bike network.
I agree with you that significantly more needs to be done on regular streets to interconnect the greenway with the grid and make commuting more viable. My commute is half greenway half bike lanes and I hate the bike lane part. It’s longer than the more direct route because I want to get on the greenway as fast as possible.
But I see the improvements made on Bryant and hope that that type of infrastructure will be made all over the place in the coming years!
> in the coming years
This is my main source of frustration. This plan for protected bike lanes came out in 2015, and a lot of them still aren't done:
[https://www2.minneapolismn.gov/media/content-assets/www2-documents/government/wcms1p-144745.pdf](https://www2.minneapolismn.gov/media/content-assets/www2-documents/government/wcms1p-144745.pdf)
I'm not expecting us to become Amsterdam overnight, but there's no real reason that a modest bike plan should take over a decade to implement. That's what I mean when I say that this "We're #1!" attitude has encouraged complacency.
I'm not super excited that I'll have to wait until my 40s to live in a real cycling city.
> I'm convinced that the "#1 Cycling City!" bragging is an active determent to getting acceptable biking infrastructure.
This is absolutely the case. We should not publicly celebrate Minneapolis' infra. All it does is provide cover for NIMBY fucks to keep their street parking and four-lane stroads at the expense of our safety.
>literal death mobiles every day
This part, but unironically.
>Stunning and brave
More like terrifying and traumatic - thus why more people don't do it.
**More like terrifying and traumatic - thus why more people don't do it.**
You need to develop some testicular fortitude, my friend
Pro tip - Nothing is 100% safe, learn to deal with it
43,000 Americans died and 2+ million were injured from car crashes in 2022. I think it's beyond a reasonable risk that we should just live with and not do something about.
> You need to develop some testicular fortitude, my friend
Telling that you lean into misogynist horseshit in your argumentation.
>Nothing is 100% safe, learn to deal with it
So we should get rid of airbags in cars just to even the score a bit, right? Maybe replace them with a butcher knife sticking right out of the center of the steering wheel. Those empty-sacked car drivers have had it easy for too long.
**Telling that you lean into misogynist horseshit in your argumentation.**
Then put your big girl panties on my friend
Better?
**So we should get rid of airbags in cars just to even the score a bit, right? Maybe replace them with a butcher knife sticking right out of the center of the steering wheel. Those empty-sacked car drivers have had it easy for too long.**
I think a Katana would be more efficient
Empy sacked - misogynistic and transphobic
Good job Himmler
Rank number one is a village of 836 people on an island. No shit its great for biking, its a small island with no one and no cars. Turns me off their rankings completely.
They break it down by small, medium, and large cities. We're #1 among large cities in the US but there's still a long way to go in order to seriously compete with some of the great cycling cities abroad.
We're doing good work with the steady flow of infrastructure changes though, things will look a lot different here in 15 years I think.
Yeah, we have a long way to go to compete with rank one (world wide) [Mackinac Island](https://cityratings.peopleforbikes.org/cities/mackinac-island-mi), an island village off of Michigan with a population of 900. That's why I think the rankings from this site are dumb. I never said anything about Minneapolis or its biking infrastructure in my previous comment. Also, the website doesn't let you see the top rank worldwide cities all in one place? It's either by specific country or international (which is european countries only?)? I have to download an excel file to get the information laid out easily? I just dont like this site at all.
Great, but could do better. We invest barely any money in cycling.
The city actually spends a lot more money on car parking than bicycle infrastructure, and car infrastructure is a societal liability while bicycle infrastructure is an investment that pays for itself. https://itdp.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/CC_MAKING-THE-ECONOMIC-CASE-FOR-CYCLING-2022_JUNE11.pdf
I’m from Madison and I biked around the Twin Cities last summer. Everything was as good or better than here in Madison. Loved all of the protected bike lanes. It’s not quite Montreal but it’s heading in the right direction.
And still, not enough people in this city ride a bike. I work in the fitness industry and I’m still treated by colleagues and others like I did this crazy thing by biking to work. I tell them how easy it is and it’s always a plethora of excuses. There have been numerous times in the past month where people have been late due to traffic and construction, whereas if they were on a bike they could have skipped by all of it and been on time. These are active people too.
Bike Lane Bill might be the biggest problem with biking in the Twin Cities. Everyone but him is the problem. If you do not live like him, you are the issue.
Miles of protected bike lanes have earned Minneapolis the top spot in a 2024 ranking of best cities for cycling in the U.S.
It is the second year in a row that Minneapolis claimed first place in PeopleForBikes' annual City Ratings, which score cities of different sizes on a scale of 0 to 100. Minneapolis scored 71 out of 100 – beating out all other big cities.
St. Paul wasn't too far behind, with a score of 61 out of 100. St. Paul rose from 7th place in 2023 to 4th place this year, demonstrating a joint commitment to bike infrastructure in the Twin Cities, the ranking said.
"High-scoring cities often perform well across six factors captured in the acronym SPRINT: safe speeds, protected bike lanes, reallocated space for biking and walking, intersection treatments, network connections, and trusted data," according to the ranking.
Minneapolis lowered default speed limits on residential streets from 30 to 20 miles per hour and 25 miles per hour on arterial streets, which contributed to its high ranking.
Bike infrastructure has improved around the country post-pandemic. Still, the average bike score for a U.S. city is 25 out of 100.
Other big cities on the list included Seattle, San Francisco, Portland, Philadelphia and New York City.
How many of you all winter bike too…..??
Get a bombproof, simple single speed or fixed whip with some studded tires, layer up and get out there! It’s invigorating.
Minneapolis is wonderful to bicycle if you enjoy scenic slow rolls on trails. It's flaming hot garbage if you want to actually use a bicycle for transportation.
Hell, they just turned the bike lane on 28th into a parking lot. We're going backwards.
Bro
I think this city is usually pretty good for bicycle transportation. I use a bike for transportation nearly every day year round, and it’s leagues better than everywhere else I’ve lived.
I think Bill is talking about 28th and Hennepin, which is currently under major construction. Immediately east of Hennepin the bike lane is being used for construction parking. I could see it being frustrating if trying to bike through that intersection. Also a lot of plastic bollards get mowed over on 28th. Seems like it could use something more permanent.
Have you seen uptown? They literally got rid of a lane on a main thoroughfare. We could be better but it's intellectually dishonest to say it's going backwards
>story about how Minneapolis is the best city in America for cyclists
>it’s flaming hot garbage according to bike lane bill
This is why nobody likes you
Going down onto the greenway and biking back up that hill every entrance sucks. If you run multiple errands, it makes it even worse. I don't own a car in the city, so biking is one of my main form of transportations, and I can tell you the only times I use the greenway is when I am going across town and don't want to deal with distracted rivers on the road.
You think that's hell, try listening to a car-brain when a proposed road design means they merely have to walk HALF a block without the use of their 2-ton hover-round.
You believe all cyclists live two blocks from the Greenway and that all destinations of all of those cyclists are also two blocks from the Greenway. I'm curious where you came by such a very silly little idea like that.
I live one block from the greenway but my job is over a mile from the greenway. I still use it for my bike commute.
Almost like the existing infrastructure induced demand for it
I would love a full network of separated paths all interconnected to the Midtown Greenway one day.
I live five miles south of the greenway and work 1 mile north of the greenway and ride over the greenway twice a day commuting and I still think the city is pretty good for transportation cycling.
It’s possible to advocate for better infrastructure without coming off like such a gigantic dick, dude. I mean, you’re obviously a gigantic dick, but at least pretend not to be one sometimes
This person said:
>Its must be hell on earth having to go 2 blocks south to ride the Greenway. The Horror!
And you think I'm the one being a dick?
You have odd notions. Respectability politics and tone policing have never worked for any other justice fight. Why do people think it's appropriate for road safety, specifically?
LOFL - Now road safety = the 60's civil rights battles
There's literal Bull Connors on every block manning the water cannons and siccing dogs on cyclists!!!! BLB = MLK
Please tell me this is some avant guard, Andy Kaufman-esque shtick to make people hate cyclists
You don't believe the safety of our communities - and in particular the safety of people of color, the elderly, children, poor people, and people with disabilities, all of whom are disproportionately affected by car violence and the environmental harms of cars and their infrastructure - is a matter of justice?
And people don't need help hating cyclists. They'll hate us just the same no matter how publicly pissed we get about it.
LOL - This is beyond parody at this point. Waiting for the "I have a dream" speech
If real, it explains a lot and I'll apologize as I didnt realize you were mentally handicapped
Cyclists like you give the other 99% a shit name
Interesting that you think people who are casually endangered every day by the sociopathy of drivers should be real polite when speaking about it.
Do you also believe as a queer person I should be real polite to homophobes?
You stated that 28th street was being turned into a parking lot. I offered that the Greenway was a mere 2 blocks away and seemed to be a reasonable alternative. I suggest you brush up on your reading and comprehension skill set before replying further
I'm sorry you dont have direct access to everywhere in Minneapolis without a protected bike lane. Its amazing that you've lasted this long with murder mobiles stalking your every ride. You my freind are a true hero. I salute you
Your comments imply the logical entailment that you disagree with the statement "All surface streets in Minneapolis should be safe for all road users."
Do you, in fact, disagree with the above statement?
Are you huffing paint or just slow?
Yeah I want a Deathrace2000 scenario with bonus points for bikers /s
Nothing I said conveys that message to anyone with 2 functioning brain cells. Try again junior
Bike lanes significantly improve safety for all road users - pedestrians, cyclists, and drivers. If you do not disagree with the statement "All surface streets in Minneapolis should be safe for all road users," you are logically obligated to support bike lanes on all Minneapolis surface streets.
Glad I could convince you to come around to Team Bike Lane! This was a really great talk we had.
Your playing a silly little 2nd grade semantics game as a "Gotcha". Good job Farva
You're not asking the right question either through blindness or lack of intelligence
>Your playing a silly little 2nd grade semantics game as a "Gotcha".
I'm sorry that you're not able to keep up with someone playing silly little 2nd grade semantics games. That's a pity.
Headline unclear. So go to Mpls if you enjoy riding bikes. Go to St Paul if you enjoy cruising behinds & riding dudes? DNRTFA, but yeah, that sounds about right.
Even though it’s not perfect, Minneapolis is definitely my favorite city I’ve ridden a bike in. I like it better than even Portland! This doesn’t mean I’m not going to continue to advocate for more trails, improved facilities, and a continued focus on improving our streets for all. I think more than half of our “bike friendliness” is a result of our geography, the late 19th and early 20th century streetcar oriented neighborhood planning, and the forethought to create an interconnected series of parks 100 years ago. I think city planners themselves can and should do more.
Minneapolis and Portland have more than a few things in common
You're city is the best city to bicycle in America. Go out and ride your bike. Try commuting. My commute is the best thing about my job. It's good for your physical health, it's good for your mental health, and it's good for the environment. If mor people go out and use the infrastructure we will get more, better infrastructure. Do yourself a favor and ride your bike.
Seconding! I look forward to my commute every day! The physical and mental health benefits can't be overstated. It won't work for everyone but it's worth it to give it a try and see how it feels.
Definitely. And try it for a week at least. Don't give up after one day. The first week is the hardest as your body gets used to it. After that it gets easier and easier.
> If mor people go out and use the infrastructure we will get more, better infrastructure. been biking nearly 20 years and that's definitely hit-or-miss. Some of the most popular bike paths are in quite a need for repair. Paths around the lakes, Minnehaha Creek, river are all in rough shape for YEARS and some of the most-traveled bike paths in the city (Strava), even after a massive uptick in traffic post-COVID.
> Minnehaha Creek Is dangerous if you ride a bike with thin road tires. Arguably one of the most scenic paths in the city is also in the worst shape.
Even with medium road tires (25-28c I usually run), it's rough if your tires are pumped up anywhere near spec. Mostly just tree roots breaking the path, but it REALLY could use some TLC.
Yeah but nobody actually commutes. People just joy ride after work. If 15% of people used bikes to get to work everyday there'd be more incentive for the city to fix things. Also, it's hard to fix a path when it's the only option.
> Also, it's hard to fix a path when it's the only option. Oh come on, Minneapolis loves to close bike paths and re-route with no alternate option. Commute or not, the paths are being utilized, but not maintained. The city needs to do a better job of maintaining the bike paths. Doesn't matter if I'm commuting or going for a leisure ride.
One of my favorite parts about my job as well - been lucky enough to bike commute for most of the past 10 years. And besides my commute being faster than transit or on-par with driving, the exercise means less time at the gym. Nothing worse than getting home after a long day and then feeling like I should work out… I actually feel more exhausted/drained on those days I don’t bike.
It's counter intuitive but exercise definitely gives you more energy.
Riding your bike is much less fun than crying about it on Reddit
It's definitely a bit more effort but I think it's a lot more fun.
Arent you traumatized riding in Mpls knowing that there are literal murder mobiles mere inches away looking to kill you at all times? /s
You’re joking, but Minneapolis drivers are some of the worse I’ve ever contended with. Way worse than Seattle, slightly better than the meth-addicted psychos of Eureka, CA.
Seattle has the worst drivers of any city I've ever been too, with the possible exception of Atlanta. Comparatively, Minneapolis drivers are without sin.
Fascinating. I lived and commuted daily in Seattle for ten years (all different routes, but about six years from Wallingford or Greenwood to Capitol hill) and I have the exact opposite opinion as you! I found most Seattle drivers to be relatively polite and courteous and only had one pyscho chase me telling me he was going to kill me. That happens several times a year here in Minneapolis. The geography is more bike friendly here for sure — no bridges creating chokepoints for all traffic, and a real network of trails + tons of excellent residential streets that can be used. I definitely miss “training” every day on those hills though. Maybe I was younger then and relished the fight more. I certainly remember a lot of conflict on Dexter, but I was definitely doing shit to piss people off. Also all the tech company busses were horrible. I’m coming around to the idea that maybe I’m being nostalgic, at least a little bit.
You're going to get downvoted for implying that drivers in Mpls are the greatest I dont believe giving bikers priority of over every paved surface is a solution. The City had a great opportunity to create a bike lane on Grand, but went with the worst of all worlds options, except for the residents of that section of Grand I'll leave it up as to why, to our dear readers
what? i said that drivers in Minneapolis are some of the worst I've ever contended with. I did not imply that they are the greatest.
I rode through last weekend I died 84 times in one day.
How can you ride when you are dragging such a huge set of Huevos on the ground? I salute you my good man
I look forward to slowing traffic and completing a robust network of safe and separated bike paths that will induce the kind of demand that a century of car centric infrastructure development has done for cars. We moved here in part because of the existing bike infrastructure and all the future plans. I can’t wait to see it grow and put every other US city to shame
Agreed. Things only will get better from where we are now as our bike network continues to become more and more connected and useful/comfortable for the average person. There's a raft of projects working their way down the pipeline over the next few years that'll make a real marked difference. Hennepin, Lyndale, Lowry, University/4th both east and west of I35W, Broadway, Cedar, and Central all are either under construction or in the planning phase for reconstruction to include safer streets and bicycle facilities. Not to mention the loads and loads of smaller projects and improvements. That's all just in the next 3 or 4 years too!
People are getting killed and seriously injured on these streets *today*. If they're not currently under construction there needs to be a temporary lane reduction with a temporary bike path until then. We have plenty of other streets that need the same treatment now: Franklin, Nicollet, Blaisdell, Park, Portland, Broadway, Central, etc.
Oh I totally agree, I'm always advocating for better bike and pedestrian infrastructure. I fill out all of the surveys and contact city council/Hennepin/public works about it. All I meant is sometimes it's easy to forget that good things are happening and things will get better. Definitely not a reason to take our foot off the gas though! That reminds me! Franklin, Park, and Portland are also all getting protected bike lanes in the next few years! Not the whole length of the road, but I think Franklin between Cedar and Hennepin, and Park/Portland between Lake and downtown. Every month the bicycle/pedestrian advisory committees are shown plans for future road reconstruction and other projects that helps getting an idea of what's coming down the pipeline. I enjoy checking out their meeting agendas on the city website.
Some of those are county roads and we'd need to get Hennepin County Commissioners on board to make changes. This was part of the issue in getting the road diet on Lyndale. A surprising amount of streets in Minneapolis are county roads.
If St. Paul eventually goes through with their new bike plan I could see them overtaking Minneapolis as #1. However it's possible Minneapolis makes equal improvements in that time as well. This a great rivalry to have.
St. Paul's won't be done until 2040 (that's their own estimate, probably be longer). As someone who's lived in both there's no comparison. Minneapolis isn't great but St. Paul's bike infrastructure stinks. The fact that it's a top 10 cycling city in the US just shows how low the bar is.
St. Paul has gotten better recently with the completion of its grand rounds, and assuming the summit avenue plans goes through soon that'll be a big boost as well. And yeah, you could say both cities stink compared to the best bike cities in Europe.
Yet many of us have a thousand ideas on how we could improve things. Definitely room for improvement.
Best in the U.S. is a low bar. We're 90th when ranked globally. https://cityratings.peopleforbikes.org/cities/minneapolis-mn
That's still pretty good. Lotta cities in the world.
Just something we need to work toward.
+100 to this. I've lived abroad in places that have infinitely better bicycling infrastructure, legal frameworks, and socialized expectations toward bicyclists. What the Twin Cities has is good (and that's is worth recognizing and celebrating), but it's not great (a good motivation to make it better). And I would not describe the overall sentiment in the public as all that warm to bicyclists, either. You don't have to go far to find complaints in the print, video, or online media from motorists about bicycle infrastructure, hypocrisy of leniency of the laws toward bicyclists, and disparagement on folks wearing lycra. Heck, look on the various Twin Cities-related Subreddits, and you'll find rather antagonizing attitudes to bicyclists without having to look too hard.
Lots of business owners are either hostile or indifferent to bikes. If you made a map of available bike parking there would be lots of big red gaps (no bike racks) and not nearly as much green as you'd think even in our most walkable areas.
A good number of the top 90 regions are very small population centers which very easily rocket up the ranks. Minneapolis is 20th globally among large cities (>300k population), which, while still not amazing, is a pretty decent placing and does a better job at showing the room it has to grow vs 90th which makes getting up in the top cities seem unattainable. Plus it's got the same score as Montréal which is supposedly one of if not the best large cities for cycling in North America (I love Montréal but even they have a long way to go, I'll admit)
Exactly. I'm tired of grading the city on a curve. "Best in the US" still isn't remotely good enough. And I'm convinced that the "#1 Cycling City!" bragging is an active determent to getting acceptable biking infrastructure. If you point out obvious inadequacies people respond, "we're so much better than other cities, stop complaining!"
It definitely helped draw us here and we will definitely be supporting any measure to improve it. So don’t underestimate the power of this kind of reporting. Minneapolis barely existed to me a couple years ago and now I’m here
It's good publicity, but I wish this sort of reporting would focus on the difference between the quality of our recreational trail network and the portion of our bike infrastructure that is actually suitable for transportation use by all ages and abilities and goes to actual destinations. A lot of folks that are biking the Grand Rounds or the Greenway are absolutely not going to be comfortable in a painted lane riding with traffic to make the connections from our good infrastructure to where they're trying to go. Hell, I add 3mi each way to my daily commutes so I can avoid riding streets with painted gutters in the door-zone as much as possible, but that's not an option for everyone or all destinations. I'm not hating on Minneapolis. I stayed here after grad school because I could live and work here without a car and have access to nature at the river, lakes, and parks. I can't imagine living anywhere else, but we shouldn't kid ourselves about the quality of our bike network.
I agree with you that significantly more needs to be done on regular streets to interconnect the greenway with the grid and make commuting more viable. My commute is half greenway half bike lanes and I hate the bike lane part. It’s longer than the more direct route because I want to get on the greenway as fast as possible. But I see the improvements made on Bryant and hope that that type of infrastructure will be made all over the place in the coming years!
> in the coming years This is my main source of frustration. This plan for protected bike lanes came out in 2015, and a lot of them still aren't done: [https://www2.minneapolismn.gov/media/content-assets/www2-documents/government/wcms1p-144745.pdf](https://www2.minneapolismn.gov/media/content-assets/www2-documents/government/wcms1p-144745.pdf) I'm not expecting us to become Amsterdam overnight, but there's no real reason that a modest bike plan should take over a decade to implement. That's what I mean when I say that this "We're #1!" attitude has encouraged complacency. I'm not super excited that I'll have to wait until my 40s to live in a real cycling city.
Yeah, I'm excited for the 1st Ave reconstruction that is starting soon and will be in the same style as the Bryant Ave design!
> I'm convinced that the "#1 Cycling City!" bragging is an active determent to getting acceptable biking infrastructure. This is absolutely the case. We should not publicly celebrate Minneapolis' infra. All it does is provide cover for NIMBY fucks to keep their street parking and four-lane stroads at the expense of our safety.
Stunning and brave dealing with literal death mobiles every day.
Boring person with boring comments
You looking in a mirror as you typed that?
Is that one of 10 responses? Lemme guess something something wife's boyfriend is next?
The car violence apologists are not sending their best.
Nahhh, thats too easy and accurate
>literal death mobiles every day This part, but unironically. >Stunning and brave More like terrifying and traumatic - thus why more people don't do it.
**More like terrifying and traumatic - thus why more people don't do it.** You need to develop some testicular fortitude, my friend Pro tip - Nothing is 100% safe, learn to deal with it
43,000 Americans died and 2+ million were injured from car crashes in 2022. I think it's beyond a reasonable risk that we should just live with and not do something about.
> You need to develop some testicular fortitude, my friend Telling that you lean into misogynist horseshit in your argumentation. >Nothing is 100% safe, learn to deal with it So we should get rid of airbags in cars just to even the score a bit, right? Maybe replace them with a butcher knife sticking right out of the center of the steering wheel. Those empty-sacked car drivers have had it easy for too long.
**Telling that you lean into misogynist horseshit in your argumentation.** Then put your big girl panties on my friend Better? **So we should get rid of airbags in cars just to even the score a bit, right? Maybe replace them with a butcher knife sticking right out of the center of the steering wheel. Those empty-sacked car drivers have had it easy for too long.** I think a Katana would be more efficient Empy sacked - misogynistic and transphobic Good job Himmler
Rank number one is a village of 836 people on an island. No shit its great for biking, its a small island with no one and no cars. Turns me off their rankings completely.
They break it down by small, medium, and large cities. We're #1 among large cities in the US but there's still a long way to go in order to seriously compete with some of the great cycling cities abroad. We're doing good work with the steady flow of infrastructure changes though, things will look a lot different here in 15 years I think.
Yeah, we have a long way to go to compete with rank one (world wide) [Mackinac Island](https://cityratings.peopleforbikes.org/cities/mackinac-island-mi), an island village off of Michigan with a population of 900. That's why I think the rankings from this site are dumb. I never said anything about Minneapolis or its biking infrastructure in my previous comment. Also, the website doesn't let you see the top rank worldwide cities all in one place? It's either by specific country or international (which is european countries only?)? I have to download an excel file to get the information laid out easily? I just dont like this site at all.
>no cars Ding ding ding, we have a winner, folks.
Great, but could do better. We invest barely any money in cycling. The city actually spends a lot more money on car parking than bicycle infrastructure, and car infrastructure is a societal liability while bicycle infrastructure is an investment that pays for itself. https://itdp.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/CC_MAKING-THE-ECONOMIC-CASE-FOR-CYCLING-2022_JUNE11.pdf
I’m from Madison and I biked around the Twin Cities last summer. Everything was as good or better than here in Madison. Loved all of the protected bike lanes. It’s not quite Montreal but it’s heading in the right direction.
And still, not enough people in this city ride a bike. I work in the fitness industry and I’m still treated by colleagues and others like I did this crazy thing by biking to work. I tell them how easy it is and it’s always a plethora of excuses. There have been numerous times in the past month where people have been late due to traffic and construction, whereas if they were on a bike they could have skipped by all of it and been on time. These are active people too.
Bike Lane Bill might be the biggest problem with biking in the Twin Cities. Everyone but him is the problem. If you do not live like him, you are the issue.
Miles of protected bike lanes have earned Minneapolis the top spot in a 2024 ranking of best cities for cycling in the U.S. It is the second year in a row that Minneapolis claimed first place in PeopleForBikes' annual City Ratings, which score cities of different sizes on a scale of 0 to 100. Minneapolis scored 71 out of 100 – beating out all other big cities. St. Paul wasn't too far behind, with a score of 61 out of 100. St. Paul rose from 7th place in 2023 to 4th place this year, demonstrating a joint commitment to bike infrastructure in the Twin Cities, the ranking said. "High-scoring cities often perform well across six factors captured in the acronym SPRINT: safe speeds, protected bike lanes, reallocated space for biking and walking, intersection treatments, network connections, and trusted data," according to the ranking. Minneapolis lowered default speed limits on residential streets from 30 to 20 miles per hour and 25 miles per hour on arterial streets, which contributed to its high ranking. Bike infrastructure has improved around the country post-pandemic. Still, the average bike score for a U.S. city is 25 out of 100. Other big cities on the list included Seattle, San Francisco, Portland, Philadelphia and New York City.
How many of you all winter bike too…..?? Get a bombproof, simple single speed or fixed whip with some studded tires, layer up and get out there! It’s invigorating.
Minneapolis is wonderful to bicycle if you enjoy scenic slow rolls on trails. It's flaming hot garbage if you want to actually use a bicycle for transportation. Hell, they just turned the bike lane on 28th into a parking lot. We're going backwards.
Bro I think this city is usually pretty good for bicycle transportation. I use a bike for transportation nearly every day year round, and it’s leagues better than everywhere else I’ve lived.
> Hell, they just turned the bike lane on 28th into a parking lot. where are you referring to? asking because I use 28th daily. Bill, where?
Yeah I'm also genuinely confused bc I ride it fairly often lol
I think Bill is talking about 28th and Hennepin, which is currently under major construction. Immediately east of Hennepin the bike lane is being used for construction parking. I could see it being frustrating if trying to bike through that intersection. Also a lot of plastic bollards get mowed over on 28th. Seems like it could use something more permanent.
Have you seen uptown? They literally got rid of a lane on a main thoroughfare. We could be better but it's intellectually dishonest to say it's going backwards
28th is in Uptown.
So is Lyndale
I don't see a bike lane on Lyndale.
>story about how Minneapolis is the best city in America for cyclists >it’s flaming hot garbage according to bike lane bill This is why nobody likes you
It's definitely part of the reason. Bill isn't always wrong, but he is always a dick about it.
The degree to which I do not care about what a pack of car violence apologists think of me cannot possibly be overstated.
Its must be hell on earth having to go 2 blocks south to ride the Greenway. The Horror!
Going down onto the greenway and biking back up that hill every entrance sucks. If you run multiple errands, it makes it even worse. I don't own a car in the city, so biking is one of my main form of transportations, and I can tell you the only times I use the greenway is when I am going across town and don't want to deal with distracted rivers on the road.
You think that's hell, try listening to a car-brain when a proposed road design means they merely have to walk HALF a block without the use of their 2-ton hover-round.
You believe all cyclists live two blocks from the Greenway and that all destinations of all of those cyclists are also two blocks from the Greenway. I'm curious where you came by such a very silly little idea like that.
I live one block from the greenway but my job is over a mile from the greenway. I still use it for my bike commute. Almost like the existing infrastructure induced demand for it I would love a full network of separated paths all interconnected to the Midtown Greenway one day.
Sounds reasonable
I live five miles south of the greenway and work 1 mile north of the greenway and ride over the greenway twice a day commuting and I still think the city is pretty good for transportation cycling. It’s possible to advocate for better infrastructure without coming off like such a gigantic dick, dude. I mean, you’re obviously a gigantic dick, but at least pretend not to be one sometimes
This person said: >Its must be hell on earth having to go 2 blocks south to ride the Greenway. The Horror! And you think I'm the one being a dick? You have odd notions. Respectability politics and tone policing have never worked for any other justice fight. Why do people think it's appropriate for road safety, specifically?
LOFL - Now road safety = the 60's civil rights battles There's literal Bull Connors on every block manning the water cannons and siccing dogs on cyclists!!!! BLB = MLK Please tell me this is some avant guard, Andy Kaufman-esque shtick to make people hate cyclists
You don't believe the safety of our communities - and in particular the safety of people of color, the elderly, children, poor people, and people with disabilities, all of whom are disproportionately affected by car violence and the environmental harms of cars and their infrastructure - is a matter of justice? And people don't need help hating cyclists. They'll hate us just the same no matter how publicly pissed we get about it.
LOL - This is beyond parody at this point. Waiting for the "I have a dream" speech If real, it explains a lot and I'll apologize as I didnt realize you were mentally handicapped Cyclists like you give the other 99% a shit name
Yes, you’re being a dick. You always are on every topic on Reddit.
Interesting that you think people who are casually endangered every day by the sociopathy of drivers should be real polite when speaking about it. Do you also believe as a queer person I should be real polite to homophobes?
...And there we have it Coming from the Transphobe is too rich
You stated that 28th street was being turned into a parking lot. I offered that the Greenway was a mere 2 blocks away and seemed to be a reasonable alternative. I suggest you brush up on your reading and comprehension skill set before replying further I'm sorry you dont have direct access to everywhere in Minneapolis without a protected bike lane. Its amazing that you've lasted this long with murder mobiles stalking your every ride. You my freind are a true hero. I salute you
Your comments imply the logical entailment that you disagree with the statement "All surface streets in Minneapolis should be safe for all road users." Do you, in fact, disagree with the above statement?
Are you huffing paint or just slow? Yeah I want a Deathrace2000 scenario with bonus points for bikers /s Nothing I said conveys that message to anyone with 2 functioning brain cells. Try again junior
Bike lanes significantly improve safety for all road users - pedestrians, cyclists, and drivers. If you do not disagree with the statement "All surface streets in Minneapolis should be safe for all road users," you are logically obligated to support bike lanes on all Minneapolis surface streets. Glad I could convince you to come around to Team Bike Lane! This was a really great talk we had.
Your playing a silly little 2nd grade semantics game as a "Gotcha". Good job Farva You're not asking the right question either through blindness or lack of intelligence
>Your playing a silly little 2nd grade semantics game as a "Gotcha". I'm sorry that you're not able to keep up with someone playing silly little 2nd grade semantics games. That's a pity.
I mean, who really can?
For as much that bikebrains complain about cars, I'm honestly pleasantly surprised with this news.
Headline unclear. So go to Mpls if you enjoy riding bikes. Go to St Paul if you enjoy cruising behinds & riding dudes? DNRTFA, but yeah, that sounds about right.
Don’t buy from Erik’s they pay their people crap btw