With the Tour de France quickly approaching, millions of cyclists and viewers around the world are tuning their bikes and televisions to watch the big race. With pleas to increase cycling road safety, it’s clear the world cares about its cyclists staying safe. So, the team at YLS went to work studying US cycling data to discover the safest and least safe cities for cyclists in the country.

Data Highlights

Most of the Top 10 safest cities for cyclists are in California and other west coast states. The fact that Davis, Calif., is the safest city for cycling may be a testament to city leaders’ careful planning and bicycle education safety.

Iowa dominates the majority of least-safe cities for cyclists in the US, even with the popular Ragbrai biking event being hosted in The Hawkeye State.

Despite being a west coast city, Los Angeles is one of the least safe cities. Why isn’t Southern California as safe as Northern or Central California?

Missoula, MT had over 7% of residents report that they use cycling as a main method of transportation to get to work (#6 out of the cities we researched), yet Montana got a 0 for each of our bike law categories.

36 cities that currently have no protected bike lanes have either proposed or are currently working on building protected bike lanes.

Alaska has some of the highest spending per capita ($9.71) despite the fact that they have very low percentages of commuters who bike (1.5% in Anchorage and 0% in the other cities we researched).

10 Safest Cities

DAVIS, California BERKELEY, California BOULDER, Colorado EUGENE, Oregon PALO ALTO, California CHICO, California MOUNTAIN VIEW, California FORT COLLINS, Colorado SANTA BARBARA, California NEW HAVEN, Connecticut

10 Most Dangerous Cities

LOS ANGELES, California NEW YORK CITY, New York WEBSTER CITY, Iowa JAMESTOWN, North Dakota FARGO, North Dakota HOUSTON, Texas WATERLOO, Iowa SIOUX CITY, Iowa JOHNSTON, Iowa DES MOINES, Iowa

Each State’s Safest City

State Name State’s Safest City City’s Safety Ranking Alabama Birmingham 578 Alaska Anchorage 581 Arizona Tempe 317 Arkansas Fayetteville 331 California Davis 1 Colorado Boulder 3 Connecticut New Haven 10 Delaware Wilmington 492 Florida Gainesville 308 Georgia Sandy Springs 347 Hawaii Honolulu 563 Idaho Boise 567 Illinois Evanston 16 Indiana Bloomington 506 Iowa Iowa City 767 Kansas Wichita 739 Kentucky Alexandria 752 Louisiana Shreveport 412 Maine Portland 301 Maryland Glen Burnie 135 Massachusetts Somerville 58 Michigan Ann Arbor 481 Minnesota Minneapolis 12 Mississippi Jackson 583 Missouri Columbia 526 Montana Missoula 640 Nebraska Lincoln 733 Nevada Paradise 360 New Hampshire Manchester 557 New Jersey Jersey City 408 New Mexico Santa Fe 540 New York Syracuse 537 North Carolina Jacksonville 37 North Dakota Bismarck 777 Ohio Canton 535 Oklahoma Norman 738 Oregon Eugene 4 Pennsylvania Pittsburgh 32 Rhode Island Providence 482 South Carolina Charleston 561 South Dakota Rapid City 736 Tennessee Knoxville 340 Texas Bryan 553 Utah Salt Lake City 30 Vermont South Burlington 307 Virginia Arlington 15 Washington Seattle 290 West Virginia Elkview 490 Wisconsin Madison 421 Wyoming Jackson 737

Methodology

To determine the safest and least safe US cities for bikers, we gathered metrics and data from Census.gov, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, People for Bikes, and The League of American Bicyclists to find the percentage of bike commuters, number of fatal crashes, amount of bike lanes, and what bike laws are in place or in the works in each city. Cities were included if these sources had data for them.

Each metric was then added together with the following weight based on a 100-point scale:

Bike commuter: x3

Fatal crashes: x6

Protected bike lanes: x1

Proposed protected bike lanes: x.5

Complete street law: x1

Safe passing law: x1

Statewide bike plan: x1

Bike safety emphasis area: x1

Spending per capita: x1

Finally, the total 790 cities were ranked based on their overall score.

Keeping Safe Once You Park

When you ride your bike on city streets, you likely worry about your physical safety. But you may also face the risk of bike theft once you park your cycle in public or at home. In fact, the National Bike Registry estimates there are 1.5 million bikes stolen each year, and many thefts occur at home. For tips on how to help protect yourself and loved ones from bicycle theft, check out our blog, 10 Surefire Ways to Have Your Bike Stolen.

Featured image by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

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