The ‘Virtuous Circle’ of Bikeability

Has your city entered the ‘virtuous cycle’ of bikeability? Writing in Streetsblog USA, Kea Wilson describes the ‘tipping point’ at which residents begin calling for more bike infrastructure, signaling a desire to see biking as an everyday transportation mode.

The measure comes from advocacy group PeopleForBikes, which issues an annual list of City Ratings. Cities that score 50 or above on the organization’s SPRINT rubric, which “includes such measures as protected bike lanes, safe intersection treatments, and reduced speed limits that are unlikely to kill a cyclist in the event of a crash, among other factors,” are said to have reached the tipping point where “bike culture has firmly taken root.”

According to Martina Haggerty, senior director of local innovation at PeopleForBikes, “[That's] not to say that there aren't still improvements to be made [but it] probably means that more people are riding bikes in those communities because they feel safe and comfortable. And when more people start riding bikes, those people tend to become advocates for better bike infrastructure and for pro-bike policies, which, [in turn,] will get more people riding.”

This year, 183 communities achieved a score of 50 or higher, a dramatic jump from the 33 that reached that score in 2019. This “reveals for the first time just how fast these destinations have improved their biking scores over the years — and how, at a certain point, those wins become self-perpetuating.” However, those communities represent just 8 percent of the 2.300 communities on the list.