I’ve recently moved from the ’burbs to Brooklyn, from car culture to bike culture, and now I realize what a fast, easy, and efficient mode of transportation biking is. Plus, I get some exercise while pedaling around town. My neighborhood is just starting to put in better bike paths around Prospect Park, but these other international cities have been cycling paradises for decades.
5. Portland, Oregon: Bike Safety Is Our Goal
General population: 533,492
Biking population: In a country where only 0.4 percent of commuters use a bike, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2007 American Community Survey, Portland ranks number one on the top ten list of most bike commuters per city, with 3.5 percent of residents cycling to work. In some neighborhoods in this city, according to Virgin-Vacations.com’s list of the most bike-friendly cities worldwide, 9 percent of residents are on bikes.
Bike-friendliness: Portland’s bicycle network has grown from 60 to 250 miles since the early 1990s. In that time, bicycle use has quadrupled, with no increase in bike crashes. This astonishing statistic is probably due to Portland’s strong bike culture and, beginning in 2000, the Create a Commuter Program. The program, which helps qualifying low-income adults view cycling as an inexpensive and reliable mode of transportation and provides five hours of instruction in bike maintenance and safety skills, along with a fully outfitted commuter bicycle—lights, lock, helmet, pump, tool kit, map, and even rain gear—for free to participants.
Reasons to look up from the handlebars: Pedaling through Portland, aka the River City, you can see more than sixty LEED-certified green buildings; go pub crawling in the city with the most microbreweries per capita in the world (though beer and biking don’t really go together); cross the city’s many bridges; visit the International Rose Test Garden, the oldest playground in Oregon; and observe an amazing variety of plant species, which bloom all over the city, thanks to Portland’s volcanic soil.
