Summary: Bike Score is the biking equivalent to Walk Score; it’s a measure of the bikeability of cities.
The 0-100 score is based on four factors: the availability of bike infrastructure (lanes and trails), the hilliness of the area, destinations and road connectivity, and the number of bike commuters. Each city block gets a score that is then weighted by population density. Several Canadian academics helped create the algorithm. The resulting list of top bikeable cities and detailed maps of them went live last week to help celebrate Bike to Work Week.
The top bikeable cities in the U.S. include:
1. Minneapolis (Bike Score: 79)
2. Portland (Bike Score: 70)
3. San Francisco (Bike Score: 70)
4. Boston (Bike Score: 68)
5. Madison (Bike Score: 67)
6. Washington, D.C. (Bike Score: 65)
7. Seattle (Bike Score: 64)
8. Tucson (Bike Score: 64)
9. New York (Bike Score: 62)
10. Chicago (Bike Score: 62)
Bike Score heat maps are available for these cities and Walk Score, which built the maps, is asking readers to vote for the next cities to get Bike Score maps. The maps present the overall heatmap for the Bike Score and includes buttons to view each of the four contributing factors individually. Have a look at the Boston Bike Score map as an example.
- press release (pdf)
