Once again Tucson has fallen down the list in Bicycling Magazine’s ranking of the top 50 bicycling cities in the country.
This year Tucson checked in at number 18 for the best biking cities. Tucson fell from 12th in 2012 and number 9 in 2010.
Here’s what they had to say about Tucson:
“One reason is makes the cut: In this longtime training capital for top pros, since 2004 the local nonprofit El Grupo has been introducing disadvantaged teens to competitive bike racing and has become one of the top-ranked junior cycling clubs.”
In an interview on an OregonLive.com story the author of the list said the rankings are more about which cities are doing more.
“We take a ‘what have you done for me lately?’ approach to the rankings,” said Ian Dille, the writer of Bicycling’s latest “Best Bike Cities” article.
“If we didn’t, it could get boring and Portland would be number one every time. We look at who is taking an advanced style on bicycling policy issues and infrastructure, and who is doing events and activities to encourage bicycling.”
Essentially other cities have caught up and are doing new things that are pushing Tucson down on the list.
The list is not online yet, but is in the latest Bicycling magazine.
Here’s the whole list:
1. New York City
2. Chicago
3. Minneapolis
4. Portland, Ore.
5. Washington, D.C.
6. Boulder, Colo.
7. San Francisco
8. Seattle
9. Fort Collins, Colo.
10. Cambridge, Mass.
11. Austin, Texas
12. Denver
13. Madison, Wisc.
14. Philadelphia
15. Eugene, Ore.
16. Boston
17. Tempe, Ariz.
18. Tucson, Ariz.
19. Arlington, Virg.
20. Boise
21. Pittsburgh
22. New Orleans
23. Long Beach Calif.
24. San Jose, Calif.
25. Indianapolis
26. Salt Lake City
27. Oakland, Calif.
28. Los Angeles
29. Miami
30. Scottsdale, Ariz.
31. Alexandria, Virg.
32. Sacramento, Calif.
33. Thousand Oaks, Calif.
34. Chattanooga, Tenn.
35. Cincinatti
36. Milwaukee
37. Gainsville, Fla.
38. Salem, Ore.
39. Albuquerque
40. St. Paul, Minn.
41. Grand Rapids, Mich.
42. Reno, Nev.
43. Louisville, Kent.
44. Columbia, Mich
45. Colorado Springs
46. Ann Arbor, Mich.
47. Omaha, Neb.
48. San Antonio, Texas
49. Des Moines, Iowa
50. Cleveland
Needs more huge arterial roads, obviously.
BicycleTucson – Sucks to keep dropping down. Are there any initiatives in the pipeline to help this situation out, or is it stagnant?
New York City number 1???? I just moved back to Tucson from a 2 year stint in that town. Trust me. NYC is a cycling wasteland. They have some bike lanes and a bike share program, but only the craziest daredevil would ride a bike in that city unless they had to. The drivers are truly sociopathic.
BajaAZdotcom part of it is PR. Places like NYC, SF and Chicago make big splashes. We need more progressive policies and infrastructure.
BicycleTucson Not surprising, street car & the tracks are bike accident waiting to happen & oads are horrible at best. No surprises really.
BicycleTucson – Agreed. I’m watching them make roads in downtown Pittsburgh into dedicated bike lanes right now and I’m amazed.
I partly blame the TPD (Tucson Pig Dept.) for not enforcing the laws regarding cyclists. A lot of them don’t even KNOW the laws!
@BajaAZdotcom BicycleTucson So, is Pittsburg doing that so it can get to #21 on the list or because the bike community needs the infrastructure.
All places will pay attention to PR, but we’ve got a real dichotomy here as I see it. The city is big on PR and the county sees needs and gets things done.
I mean, eighteen,schmeighteen, the point is do we really need 700 feet of separated bike lane.
The piece by Mckisson is not without merit.
Look, the news/’tainment industry loves lists and rankings…consider “The top five reasons why you can’t marry Angelina Jolie.” And so on. There are plenty of unemployed journalists, “media specialists” (whatever that scam is, a scam apparently), marketing executives. They are numerous and relentless. And no shortage of bandwidth out there that, inevitably, their self-serving, essentially circular, desperate crud rises to your level of consciousness–you are so short of time and so you buy in and trade away your civic involvement.
Or you refuse…
@zz BicycleTucson 700 turns into 1400, which turns into 2800 and so on and so forth. You have to start somewhere, right?
The real need is more mountain avenues through the city and especially University, Fourth Avenue and Congress.
MikeMcKisson BicycleTucson You know, this thread put me in mind of the city planner who brought up the point at Walker’s transit seminar about the allocation of resources to projects that are past their proposed need. I was impressed that there was a city person concerned about this. It seems needs have to be prioritized and planning done in a way that flexes with the future.
beat Detroit
We live and cycle in both Tucson and Seattle. There is no way Tucson ranks below Seattle. Tucson is way better than Seattle to cycle in – even though it does present its challenges. Take the rankings with a grain of salt. They obviously do not use very good criteria or accurate data.