Spill Your Thoughts On Chicago's Biking Culture For New City Ranking
By Stephen Gossett in News on Feb 15, 2017 11:16PM
It's been roughly five months since Bicycling magazine declared Chicago the best biking city in America, filling our heads with images of Bern helmet-style crowns.
But Bicycling isn't the only list-maker in the business. Another cycling group is angling to create a ranking of its own, and it just released a survey asking people to submit opinions about their city's biking infrastructure, safety and culture.
"Get your town on the "great bike cities" list," proclaims the survey page, which is administered by PeopleForBikes, a group of bike suppliers and retailers/charitable foundation. While we're no strangers to civic boosterism and are quite happy with many bike-friendly improvements that the city has made over the years, we'd recommend a fair, honest self-assessment rather than manically positive ballot-stuffing.
"The input of communities nationwide will help us create a clearer picture of the state of U.S. bike infrastructure," said Tim Blumenthal, the president of PeopleForBikes, in a press release. "We'll also generate a bit of friendly competition to speed the development of more and better biking everywhere."
The survey takes about 10 minutes and asks about safety, bikes-vs-cars relationships, accessibility, what the city does to promote cycling—those kinds of things.
PeopleForBikes also dangles a pretty decent-sized carrot for your time and thoughts: respondents have the chance to win a $1500 bike courtesy of Trek. Although we've never needed much of an excuse to rant about what we love and hate about our city's approach to bicycling.
The survey is open from now through April 15. The final tabulations combine city data and input from local officials and biking pros, plus the public survey information, to help determine the final positioning. You can take the community survey here.