Do have a bike friendly city?

CBarnes, here is some material that may aid your research:

First, a criticism of the League of Amer. Bicyclists' "Bicycle Friendly Communities" program:

http://www.labreform.org/BFC.html

And a suggested alternative, 'Cyclist Friendly Community' criteria

http://www.geocities.com/fredoswald/cyclist-friendly.html 

I'll play:

1. Santa Rosa, California

2. Lots of bike lanes.  Lots of good weather which encourages riding.  Lots of riders.  A large and very active cycling coalition, who works closely with the city council on issues concerning traffic safety, and awareness.

3. Although I don't ride as much as I used to (commuting farther away these days), I feel relatively safe on my city streets.  In the few areas where there is NOT a bike lane, the streets are wide enough to accomodate a bike and car, or there is a wide shoulder.  Our cycling coalition is aggressively working on getting more bike lanes in place, even on existing streets.

4. More bike lanes would help.  But, more importantly, a renewed campaign for public awareness of how bikes and cars can share the sames roads.

Don't live there, but was up for a family reunion last summer and saw first-hand that the Twin Cities, aka Minneapolis-St Paul, seem to have accomplished what you're looking to study.

Once you come up with some good suggestions, send 'em along to the folks in Atlanta...

I wouldn't call NYC bike-friendly, by any means.  But I do think it's getting better--it's been one of Mayor Bloomberg's pet projects.  NYC's infrastructure lags way behind in lots of areas and is only recently catching up in areas that other places have taken for granted for years.  Greeways and bike lanes are part of that.

Check out transalt.org.  They're an organization that has done a great deal for cyclist's rights in NY. 

1. New York City.  Live in Brooklyn, work in Manhattan

2: Unique due to pop. density, and the large, well-utilized mass transit system means that there's less incentive for city residents to commute by bike. High vehicular traffic makes it difficult to carve bike lanes out of major streets (Broadway, Madison Ave, 5th Ave, e.g.), but there are an ever-increasing number of greenways and bike paths.  Bike theft remains a problem, and the increase in the number of bike paths and greenways hasn't been matched by an increase in the number of safe places to lock bikes.  Security concerns have increased people's reluctance to have bikes chained outside their office buildings or apartments. I also think the somewhat but not entirely undeserved reputation of bike messengers being reckless and ignoring traffic laws has led to a culture in NYC where lots of drivers and pedestrians see cyclists as the enemy. 

3. I don't commute on my bike, and make a point of avoiding major thoroghfares when I ride.  My office would be especially difficult to commute to/from because it's so centrally located.  If I were closer to one of the rivers, or if I worked in Brooklyn or Queens, I'd certainly consider biking to work. 

4. More and better protected bike paths, more greenways, more bike racks, and, most importantly, make it a priority to hold motorists and pedestrians accountable for causing injuries to law-abiding cyclists.   By

I wouldn't call NYC bike-friendly, by any means.  But I do think it's getting better--it's been one of Mayor Bloomberg's pet projects.  NYC's infrastructure lags way behind in lots of areas and is only recently catching up in areas that other places have taken for granted for years.  Greeways and bike lanes are part of that.

Check out transalt.org.  They're an organization that has done a great deal for cyclist's rights in NY. 

1. New York City.  Live in Brooklyn, work in Manhattan

2: Unique due to pop. density, and the large, well-utilized mass transit system means that there's less incentive for city residents to commute by bike. High vehicular traffic makes it difficult to carve bike lanes out of major streets (Broadway, Madison Ave, 5th Ave, e.g.), but there are an ever-increasing number of greenways and bike paths.  Bike theft remains a problem, and the increase in the number of bike paths and greenways hasn't been matched by an increase in the number of safe places to lock bikes.  Security concerns have increased people's reluctance to have bikes chained outside their office buildings or apartments. I also think the somewhat but not entirely undeserved reputation of bike messengers being reckless and ignoring traffic laws has led to a culture in NYC where lots of drivers and pedestrians see cyclists as the enemy. 

3. I don't commute on my bike, and make a point of avoiding major thoroghfares when I ride.  My office would be especially difficult to commute to/from because it's so centrally located.  If I were closer to one of the rivers, or if I worked in Brooklyn or Queens, I'd certainly consider biking to work. 

4. More and better protected bike paths, more greenways, more bike racks, and, most importantly, make it a priority to hold motorists and pedestrians accountable for causing injuries to law-abiding cyclists.  

City: no.  geez.... don't I wish.

But... there are several "neighborhoods" that are like this.  They have homes, schools, town centers, town greens, daycares, shops, parks, trails, a few doctors office and whatnot all crammed into one part of town.  It's amazing.  There's one near here and I go there to meet my running club.  Every time I go there, I want to move there.    When we went there on a Friday night, the Town Green was full of bikes and scooters on the many bike racks, teenagers were hanging out in the coffee shop and pizza place and playing touch football on the green.  Adults were in the wine shop or the pub.....  all within one block.   *sigh*

A couple places in Miami are OK to ride, but for the most part, I have to say that Miami is not the best place to be if you are a cyclist.

HOWEVER, if you are into breast implants (and frankly, who among us doesn't appreciate a job well done), then Miami and South Beach are your tickets!!

Vancouver is pretty good.

There are a lot of bike routes and bike lanes. You can also take your bikes on transit: buses, skytrain and seabus, though the skytrain is restricted for two hours in the direction of rush hour traffic. There are a lot of cyclists/triathletes/couriers/bike commuters/hipsters, etc. so there are a lot of people on bikes in this city as well. I think that helps as cyclists are quite visible and it also leads to a lot of bike advocacy groups.

Vancouver could still improve though. A lot of transportation planning is done to fight disasters and there doesn't seem to be enough long range planning. For example, when bridges are built, they could consider hanging a bike lane off of them or at least planning it from the beginning rather than adding these things later. We cannot take our bikes on the skytrain during rush hour because there is no room for them. Frankly, there is not enough room for them during non-rush hours either. Recently we added new skytrain cars with a new design. This design should have incorporated some bike storage. This is just another example.

Templeton, Phillipston, Petersham Massachusetts...go for a ride, see a car every 10 minutes or so.  Ride down the center of the road.

Yeah, it's pretty bike friendly.  It's also a long way to the nearest pizza joint.

Nope, not at all, not even the least little bit.

Atlanta, ranked as the most bike unfriendly city in the US.

Not only are the nimrods in power here not doing enough to ease our constant gridlock traffic. There are virtually no bike lanes to speak of, nor are there any planned. There is currently an ordinence to eliminate bikes from Columns Drive, which is one of the only safe places to ride in the North Atlanta area.

We do however have the Silver Comet Trail, which is a Rails to Trails thing that is about 38 miles one way. Flat as a pancake though.