Top-10 Large Bikable U.S. Cities Ranked by Walking and Transit
For purposes of this list, a multi-modal city is defined by its combination of mass transit, walkable urban places (WalkUP's), and bike-friendliness. The rankings below show the top-10 most bike-friendly cities ranked according to how their percentages of transit users and how walkable they are. While both Tucson and Denver are bikable cities, neither are ranked in the top-10 for transit usage or walkability, making them decidedly less multi-modal urban environments, those which allow the greatest choice of ways to get around. In another example, Portland ranks first in the U.S. among large cities for bike-friendliness, but its multi-modal ranking is only 5th place because only 11% of its residents commute by public transit.
Rank | City | Score* | Population |
1 | San Francisco | 81 | 837,000 |
2 | Washington, D.C. | 77 | 646,000 |
3 | Boston | 69 | 646,000 |
4 | New York City | 65 | 8,406,000 |
5 | Portland | 52 | 609,000 |
6 | Philadelphia | 46 | 1,553,000 |
7 | Seattle | 43 | 652,000 |
8 | Chicago | 37 | 2,719,000 |
9 | Denver | 32 | 649,000 |
10 | Tucson | 12 | 526,000 |
*Weighted scores based on bike (40/100) + walk (30/100) + transit users (30/100)