Wet and Soggy, Maybe—Pacific Northwest Cities Lead in Bike Infrastructure Anyway

"It only takes a few minutes talking to transport honchos in Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver, BC, to get a sense of the intense, if friendly, competition among their cities to be king of the cycling hill," writes David Goldberg. "But in many ways the three largest urban centers of Cascadia form one big, soggy petri dish of experimentation in bike infrastructure."

Goldberg takes a look at what the cities have in common, and how they differ, in prioritizing complete streets and bicycle transportation. All three of the cities are making strides in building out connected networks of bike infrastructure, and all three have approved policies to signal their priority on quality bike infrastructure design.

After doing a side-by-side comparison of existing bike infrastructure in all three cities, Goldberg takes a more in-depth look at how each of the cities is prioritizing bike infrastructure to fit their geography and development history.