greendiary.com

Ten most bike friendly cities in the world

Biking as an alternative transportation mode is becoming icreasingly popular. Commuting by bikes helps reduce pollution and global warming. All the more, bicycling is a great way of exercising too. Though biking is becoming popular worldwide, there are only quite a very few cities that are bike friendly and have bicycle-friendly roads. Here goes a list of 10 most bike friendly cities around the world:

Amsterdam, Netherlands

Amsterdam is a city of bikers. More than 600,000 out of 750,000 people of Amsterdam own bicycles. The reason for this popularity of bikes is that the city is very car-unfriendly as it has very narrow streets, few parking spots, and a lot of traffic. You can see almost everyone biking in Amsterdam. Even the police officers could be seen using bikes for commuting. And you find bikes of various colors, sizes, and shapes here. People also decorate their bikes so that they look unique and can be spotted easily.

Boulder Colarado

Among most of the U.S. cities, Boulder has the maximum bike usage. Bicycling in Boulder is sought to be a sign of healthy lifestyle as it reduces obesity and also leads to a cleaner environment. This is the reason why people here prefer biking over other transport options. Being a small city, mostly all the trips across the city are within 4-5 miles and thus are easily achievable by biking. The city has a plan for making it biking friendly. The plan is called bicycle element. Under this program, a corridor which provides a secure and convenient travel to bikers, has been made.

Davis, California

Davis is a city for people who love biking. There are more bikes in Davis than cars. The city has 2 bicycle advisory committees. 95 percent of the major streets of the city have bike lanes thus creating a bicycle friendly infrastructure. The city has roundabouts made exclusively for bikes. There are numerous colleges which do not allow cars in the campus. So, the students use bikes for commuting.

Berlin

Berlin Senate decided 2 years ago that by 2010 there should be 15 percent of bikes as mode of transport in Berlin. Due to the interventions of the senate, the percentage of bike commuters has gone up to 12 percent. The reason for this has been the strategic investments and development made in enhancing the biking infrastructure. The number of bike lanes were doubled. Long with this, the connectivity from the train stations to the bike paths was improved. Several bike parking places have been made at 40 stations.

Barcelona

Barcelona is a big city with huge parking and traffic problems. To solve these problems, the government has made several infrastructure changes to make it a bike-friendly city. Along with improving the infrastructure, a program known as ‘borrow a bike’ has been initiated in Barcelona. 6000 bikes are in this program and people can hire them when required.

Oregon

Oregon has a perfect environment for being a bikers’ city. The reason for this is that the city has cool mountain climate. Biking is so popular in Oregon that there are several Bicycle Organizations like OR Bike, Cog Wild Bike Tours, Oregon Bicycle Racing Assoc, Bicycle Transportation Alliance, Bike Lane Coalition etc. So, if you happen to go to this city, you can join these biking associations and mingle with bike loving people.

Munich

Munich is considered to be a very cycle friendly city. The Mayor of Munich also bikes to go to work. If you are a tourist, you can contact the Munich tourist information centers from where you can get advice on the rules related to biking. You can hire a bike in Munich for €15 a day. There is a bike rental system known as ‘Call-A-Bike’ in Munich. You can get the bike registered on phone and collect it from the Train Station.

San Francisco

The Bicycling magazine has ranked San Francisco as the number 6th Bike-Friendly Cities. The reason for this is that public transportation of San Francisco gives a lot of importance to bicycles. It has separate bike lanes, racks and avenues.

Ottawa

Ottawa has a very desirable network of pathways for bikes. There are several bike rentals in the city. The bikes can be transported on O-Train and OC Transpo buses. Ottawa has received the ‘Silver Bicycle Friendly Community Award’ from League of American Bicyclists. There have been accidents related to bikes in the last few years. So, some changes are being made to eradicate this problem. Cycle pilot program and NCC’s Park have been started. These programs also provide parking lots. Ottawa’s cycling directions have been added to Google Maps.

Copenhagen

Copenhagen is full of strange modified bikes. The biking life of people can be seen in the artisans who customize the bikes. The city has bike paths. You can find the the Danish crown prince, his Royal Highness Frederik, riding his kids in a cargo bicycle. Politicians and actors could also be spotted commuting on bicycles to their work. Interesting! So, if you are planning to visit Copenhagen, you should surely bike your way across the city to witness and experience the true nature of the city.

Today's Top Articles:

Scroll to Top