Chicago Ranks 10th On Most Bikeable Cities List
By Chuck Sudo in News on May 14, 2013 7:00PM
WalkScore, the Seattle-based website that allows renters and homeowners to find the walkability of a location they’re looking to move to, released its list of the most bike-friendly large cities in America Monday and we were pleasantly surprised to find Chicago crack the top 10 with a score of 61.5, good for tenth on the list. (Portland narrowly edged out San Francisco for the top spot.)
The methodology used to determine these scores included looking at the number of bikers on streets, terrain, how a city is investing in bicycle infrastructure: Bike parking; bike sharing programs; on-street lanes and greenways, etc.
Chicago’s ranking is a testament to how far the city has come in becoming more bicycle-friendly, but there’s still much work to do if the city is to fulfill its Streets for Cycling 2020 Plan. Look no further to the heat maps WalkScore provided for Chicago indicating the city is most bike-friendly on the North Side, downtown and in Hyde Park. The top 25 most bike-friendly neighborhoods in Chicago (according to BikeScore) are:
East Ukrainian Village
Ukrainian Village
Wicker Park
Illinois Medical District
Noble Square
East Pilsen
Margate Park
West Loop Gate
Sheridan Park
Fulton River District
University Village / Little Italy
Tri-Taylor
Bucktown
Palmer Square
Near East Side
Uptown
Ravenswood
Pilsen
Greektown
Streeterville
Buena Park
South Loop
Lincoln Park
Wrightwood Neighbors
Near West Side
As Steven Vance noted over at Streetsblog Chicago, the surprise was how low Logan Square fell on the list — 58th.