Michigan's most bikeable cities list revealed: Traverse City is No. 1

Matthew Dolan, Detroit Free Press
Updated ·2 min read

Detroit cracked the top 10 of most bikeable large U.S. cities, according to a new report by an arm of a bicycle industry group.

PeopleForBikes, the U.S. bicycling industry’s trade association and a national advocacy nonprofit, announced the results of its seventh annual City Ratings, in which 1,484 cities were rated on the quality of their networks for safe and efficient bike riding.

People walk their dogs and ride their bikes during the grand opening of the Southwest Greenway in Detroit on Wednesday, May 24, 2023. The Southwest Greenway is a pedestrian pathway part of the 27.5-mile Joe Louis Greenway that connects the Detroit Riverfront to Michigan Central and surrounding neighborhoods.
People walk their dogs and ride their bikes during the grand opening of the Southwest Greenway in Detroit on Wednesday, May 24, 2023. The Southwest Greenway is a pedestrian pathway part of the 27.5-mile Joe Louis Greenway that connects the Detroit Riverfront to Michigan Central and surrounding neighborhoods.

In 2023, the top small, medium, and large U.S. cities for bicycling are: Provincetown, Mass., Davis, Calif., and Minneapolis, Minn.

In Michigan, Traverse City notched a No. 1 for all cities in the state reviewed.

Each city selected receives a score from zero to 100. If it's less than 20, the group said that indicates a weak bike network, meaning the city lacks safe bikeways or there are gaps in the network. The highest scores — 80 to 100 — indicate that the most common places to bike in the city are accessible by safe, comfortable cycling routes that serve people of all ages and abilities.

To be sure, Detroit appears to have some work to do. For larger cities, a score of 50 is the tipping point to becoming a great place to bike. And Detroit's 10th-place score was only 42.

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The scoring system, officials said, is based on a number of factors: safe road speeds to protect bikes, secure bikelanes, reallocated space for biking and walking, safe intersection treatments, and solid links in between secured biking routes.

"A couple of negative experiences can turn a new rider off," Rebecca Davies, PeopleForBikes's city rating program director said in an interview Monday.

Contact Matthew Dolan: 313-223-4743 or msdolan@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter at @matthewsdolan

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Traverse City is the most bikeable in Michigan, new group says