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Portland earns fifth place in national bicycle network ratings


A rider opts for the sidewalk on SE 122nd to avoid drivers and a dirty bike lane. (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

Portland ranked fifth among 173 large cities and saw minor improvement to its score over last year in an annual ranking of bike-friendliness by a national nonprofit cycling advocacy organization.

People for Bikes, a nonprofit supported by bicycle companies (that was formerly known as Bikes Belong) gave Portland a score of 59 out of 100 in their 2024 City Ratings — that’s up 3 points from last year’s score. Portland was rated fifth in the large city category (population above 300,000), coming in behind Minneapolis (71), Seattle (65), San Francisco (64), and St. Paul (61). There were 173 large cities Portland’s score has grown steadily since the first year of these ratings in 2018.

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People for Bikes uses a methodology called Bicycle Network Analysis (BNA) to form the basis of their rankings. The BNA is built on six main factors: safe speeds, protected bike lanes, reallocated space for biking and walking, intersection treatments, network connections, and trusted data. Using those factors, People for Bikes determines what parts of a city’s bike network is “low-stress” and then overlays the stress map with important destinations.

The BNA score is then calculated by a process that considers how well a city’s bike network connects to six categories of access: where other people live, jobs and schools, core services like health care and grocery stores, recreational riding opportunities, shopping areas, and transit hubs. Each category is weighted and scored from 0 – 100.

Portland scored highest (72) in access to shopping centers and lowest (41) in access to transit (see chart above right).

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Portland’s score of 59 is over double the average city score and is nine points over what People for Bikes considers the “tipping point to becoming a great place to bike.”

People for Bikes rated 34 cities in Oregon. Portland came in third in our state behind Ashland (73) and Corvallis (70). Below are the scores of all Oregon cities included in the ratings:

Ashland73
Corvallis70
Portland59
Bandon55
Cascade Locks49
Astoria46
Rockaway Beach42
Brookings41
Lincoln City41
Eugene39
Hillsboro37
Cornelius34
Forest Grove33
Grants Pass31
Beaverton31
Klamath Falls31
Bend30
Medford29
Milwaukie28
Tigard27
Hood River27
The Dalles24
Springfield24
Roseburg24
Albany24
Prineville23
Oregon City23
Salem23
Troutdale23
Gresham22
Lake Oswego21
Redmond21
Happy Valley20
La Grande17
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Portland’s social bike culture is unrivaled, but it doesn’t earn us any extra points in these ratings. (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

These ratings are a helpful way to track our network quality over time, but they lack a major part of what makes Portland such a great cycling city: our social bike culture. Take the three months of Bike Summer/Pedalpalooza going on in Portland right now. This festival of free cycling events features welcoming group rides that transform city streets into casual critical masses. Many people find the safety of riding in a group and easy socializing opportunities to be more attractive than a protected bike lane; but none of Portland’s world-beating bike culture is figured into these ratings.

I’ve always said that when our bicycle network quality improves it will combine with our existing bike culture to make Portland the greatest cycling city in the world. If People for Bikes added a measurement for free bike events and the fun-on-bikes potential of a city, Portland would be rated #1 every single year.

— Learn more and review more ratings here.

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