bicycle friendly communities

Just reading over at Ecovelo about Davis, CA, which is deemed to be a Platinum-level Bicycle Friendly Community by people who purport to know about such things. I was a little curious about the standing of my own city of residence, and I quickly found the master list. Minneapolis isn't a platinum-level bike town, nor is it, to my surprise, a gold town. It's down in the silver level, with the various university towns (e.g. Ann Arbor, Austin, Gainesville) and high-end tourist havens (e.g. Steamboat Springs) of the country.

I don't really know (or care) about the specifics of these rankings, but I suspect that a lot of the relative rankings sort not just by objective measures of actual bike-friendliness, but also by which communities have taken the time to fill out the application in a way that sells the community as a bike-friendly place (Minneapolis apparently got on the silver list just last year). I've ridden in Portland a bit, and admired their bike boxes, covered bike parking, and bike boulevard system. But despite these infrastructural accommodations, I still had a close call or two with motorists (nothing serious) and spent plenty of time dodging potholes. This Spring, I spent two days riding in Indianapolis, which didn't make the list at all and is generally regarded as bike-unfriendly, and found some neat trails, quiet streets, some interesting semi-underground bike culture, and extraordinarily courteous drivers. A couple weeks later, I was riding all over San Diego County, California (also not on the list, except for the city of Oceanside, which is bronze), and was delighted to observe that just about every thru-street of any size has a wide bike lane. Even with a limited understanding of the local geography, I was able to ride anywhere, reasonably confident that I wouldn't get marooned in some cars-only ghetto.

My Platinum-level Portland bicycling experience was excellent, and I hope to go back there sooner than later, but the other places were great fun, too, and shouldn't be written off. These ranking lists are probably fine for general comparisons in the broadest sense, but my experiences suggest that bike friendliness has more to do with the individual cyclist's willingness to get out there and find it than it does with the efforts of city hall.