New York was named the country’s best city for biking this week by . Rising from seventh place on the publication’s聽previous list (in 2012), New York City beat out reigning cycling hubs like Portland, which fell from first in 2012 to fourth this year, and Minneapolis, which dropped from second to third place.
The magazine based its rankings 聽indicating how a city accommodates bikers. One is bike-sharing programs, which have been launched in metropolitan areas across the country in recent years. New York鈥檚 is the nation鈥檚 largest, hosting more than 10.3 million rides () since its May 2013 launch. Other important factors included bike lanes and safety, areas where New York has excelled, having adding more than 400 miles of bike lanes in the past five years. Then there鈥檚 the sheer number of people who bike in the city: New York’s bicycle commuters doubled to nearly 35,000 from 2008 to 2012.
The other top 10 cities on the list are Chicago; Washington, DC; Boulder, Colorado; San Francisco; Seattle; Fort Collins, Colorado; and Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Bicycling also named the worst place to bike in the country: Suffolk County, a New York City suburb on Long Island.