Bike Score - Mpls on Top

This is cool: a new tool called Bike Score that gives a composite 'grade' for cities and neighborhoods on how bikeable they are.  The score is based on bike lanes, hills, biking destinations and the number of bike commuters.

The kicker?  Minneapolis ranks highest among major cities in the US, with a composite score of 79 out of 100.  We beat out other great bicycling towns like Portland (which got only a 70), San Francisco (70), Seattle (64), Chicago (62), and New York (62).

Some of that is pretty clearly due to our lack of hills relative to some of these other cities.  However, we also have a better spread of bike facilities throughout our community than one sees in most other similar cities, and a good spread of bike commuting.

On that last note, I find it very interesting that the Second Ward is one of the "greenest" spots in Minneapolis on the bike commuting map.  The University likely has a lot to do with that, but high levels of bike commuters extend down through Seward into northern Longfellow as well.  All in all, Ward 2 gets a high bike score.

Put another way, Ward 2 is one of the most bicycle-friendly areas of the most bicycle-friendly large city in the US. 

Pretty cool.