10 Bike friendly cities you can actually afford 

Ya, when I found out that I was spending an average of $700 a month for my 2007 Scion tC that I had bought used over the course of my 6 year payment plan, I realized that if I were to just add $700 to whatever I could afford before, that would open up a lot more options for me. Before that, I was stuck in car brain, frustrated that all the places I could actually afford had no off-street parking. Now, I specifically seek out apartments with no car included off-street parking because I don't want to pay (in my rent) for things I won't use.

Depends on where one lives.

@@ex0stasis72 trudat dd the same feel fantastic

Sadly if you live in a country demolished for the car it can be tricky.

@@jody024 I live in what has to be the most car focused city in canada and it is possible, but damn if everyone here says it isnt. nothings for free though you have to change your lifestyle, and I think that's the real issue, nobody wants to move from their current house, but as it happens, you can't live in your SFH community and enjoy a walkable community because they are contradictory.

Kudos for you, but come winter, they are gonna find you and your bicycle frozen to the pavement.

I've been in Minneapolis for 8 years now, haven't had a car the whole time. All bike, all the time, all weather, all seasons!

@@dimitriosfotopoulos3689 its mostly based on having the correct clothing and sensible bicycle

NE resident here, my car died last fall and I've been car free since, best decision I've ever made, and saved so much money in the past year!

Do you then e-bike; how about when the weather is above 90 etc?

And that's exactly where lessons can be learned from the Dutch and Danes. It's far more than just painting lines on asphalt.

As a Pittsburgher I can say that our master plan might not be moving as fast as I'd like, but it's definitely being put into effect. You can tell because of all of the old yinzers complaining constantly about cyclists and calling the former mayor "Bike Lane Bill" as if that's a bad thing.

I'm from Hayward CA and after getting me involved in City Council meetings I realized exactly what you said. It's sad but it seems like the only way to make this happen is to require bike infrastructure by law. They always make so many excuses for not building protected bike lanes that I'm really tired of it

Agreed. Witnessing this in Long Beach, CA.

Alec, Good the see your comment. Years ago I changed my major from urban planning to computer science once I saw that urban planning was a method of packing more cars into a limited space so people could spend & waste more.

Indeed, I was thinking back to some areas in southern around Freiberg in the Black Forest and was thinking that even without bikeways many smaller cities and towns would be comfortable if not ideal for cycle transportation when compared to the US.

​@@jackoneil3933 I'm living in Franconia. We're not having this large differences in altitudes, so most villages can be reached comfortably. I agree with you. Since Germany is in most areas densely populated a lot of traffice could be managed by bikes.

I think most German cities have terrific bike infrastructure (I am specifically referencing Munich, since I live near there).

I'm glad the US isn't the only country with an Almighty car lobby! Many places just want to switch to electric cars, but what we need is more bikes and free fast and safe public transportation worldwide.

@@eveastardust3747 Indeed... Is there any place in the world with 'fast and free public transportation? Having lived in Tokyo, public transportation is usually convenient if you live within comfortable walking distance of a train station but it's not always fast and and can be pretty expensive. To travel from my home about 15 miles from central Tokyo used to take a 20min walk to the station, a 15min wait for the train, then with two transfers and typical 1.5 to 2 hours to get form my door to Central Tokyo. Driving about the same time or longer due to traffic, but I could ride that distance on an eBike in less than an hour. However, unless for business or entertainment, or something special, I had no reason to go to Tokyo as everything I needed was within a few blocks of my home, about a dozen restaurants, a dozen or more shops, three grocery stores, and etc. In America, I have to drive 10 to 30 miles R/T to go to one of the few Big Box store like Walmart, and 30 to 50miles for a restaurant other than a McDonald's or Burger King because small business are all but gone. The American solution seems to be heading to online shopping and home delivery.

Thanks for the shoutout, Jesus! I'm an atheist but I hope I'll see you there.

Jesus, Did you wear your hair in a bun so you would blend in easier? How did it feel to be the only non-white person on multiple rides in Portland? Did you exercise your Jesus powers by doing wheelies for miles at a time? Also, did Babe Ruth make it into heaven? I know he drank a lot but he was good with kids.

I just got a bicycle not too long ago so i missed out on all of them sadly

Yeah it's a neighbourhood in Lisbon (Belém in Portuguese). Nazereth is in Belgium though.

Jesus Christ, if YOU can't get verified, what hope do the rest of us have? lol

100%. I moved to one of the cities on this list 10 years ago, sold my car to do it so that I could cycle. After 4 years I found myself with a car again because the bike friendly areas were no longer affordable and the affordable areas are not bike friendly or walkable.

I hate how he uses "average" and "median" interchangeable. The guy has no idea how money works.

There's always chasing the yuppies out of places like New York and San Francisco and see reasonable rents again. Tbh I really don't understand why yuppies want to live in big cities when they can easily afford to live in the burbs and own a car.

FACTS.

I've lived in Philly car free for almost 20 years, and at this point I can definitely say it's both affordable and bikable. With the money I saved I was able to buy my house.

So true...though winters are brutal. But they can be any place there's snow.

This videos is probably going to help change that. Minneapolis looks really nice based on this video.

@@AlejandroRamirez-le2vv Twin Cities resident here. The Cities are fantastic! Winter really isn't that bad here, we're known but it's overdramatized a bit. You should come visit!

@@jackswift4072 biking here in the winter really is pretty good still. Compared to Madison, WI which prides itself on being bike friendly, they plow in the cities more and they have built out a lot more infrastructure

They’re probably better about plowing in Minneapolis. I live in Denver and the city isn’t very good at clearing paths and they don’t use salt at all outside the snow belt which doesn’t help. I lived in Madison which I think was way better for biking than Denver but it is also much smaller so maybe not a good comparison.

Biked those trail every weekend. My only complaint with Denver is the drivers.... I'm in China now and it's crazy how much better the drivers are.... I wasn't expecting that and didn't realize how bad the driving was back home.

@@patrickedmonstone4712 I'm out in California for school, and it makes Denver drivers look like saints. Couldn't imagine biking on any of the streets near me with how the drivers act around cyclists here

@@matthewbornhorst5655 Bummer, highway one is on my bucket list. I was up in Humboldt County for a while, was blown away when people would pull over and let you pass in the mountains.... that wouldn't happen in Colorado haha. Love California though, if I had the money that's my number one state

I just road Bid Dry Creek in Westminster to go grocery shopping today. The networks in the suburbs can actually be pretty useful, they take you to quite a few commercial areas.

Not just Denver, but some of its suburbs.

Another Pittburgh bike fan here. Love that every bus can carry 2 bikes up front. Fly into PIT, stick the bike on the bus to downtown and your free and clear to ride rails to trails to DC.

Its pretty solid. but as a visitor if you get off the trails it gets pretty terrible. PA in general has a pretty great network of trails.

Love from pgh! 🚴

One thing Pittsburgh will never be short of is Yinzers saying how great it is, and great it is indeed.

Pittsburgh is great, and so are many of the surrounding towns... But dear god does our geography make transportation hard, our Geography is not just Bike Unfriendly, it is Car unfriendly, and Train unfriendly. We have to put so much more into our transportation network than other flatter cities to get the same or even less mobility.

It's not the stupid drivers, but the city's bike lane design layout... with the tax money they burn, they must send some of their high paid "professionals" on a summer camp to Netherland or London, UK Until then, Philly gonna pretend to have bike network

I remember riding out in Conshohocken when I still lived in Philly and some dude yelled at me for being in the road before speeding off, and I saw he had Jersey plates; like dude, I have more right to the road than you do, at least I pay taxes here, lol.

In PA it is four feet and slow down to pass bicycles...keep a four foot pole (pool doodle) to your side...

Be safe out there it’s heartbreaking society treats cyclists like that! 🚲

People think it’s their god-given right to drive 45 mph to that next stop sign. The same clowns that buzz me, I catch right back up with them two blocks later while they’re sitting at a red light.

There's parts of Metro Detroit that are getting better (royal oak, Ferndale, northville for example) but yeah it's pretty bad.

As a metro Detroit native (born in the city and used to work there) I was surprised to see it on the list. It sounds like it is getting a lot of credit for plans though, not what is there. You mention big box stores laakkonen, but even grocery stores are hard to come by in the city itself. Kind of strange to hear a city called bike friendly when the only food you can get is from restaurants or convenience stores without a car.

I’m late to this I live in warren and I bike a lot we at least have sidewalks but warren is quite sprawled and in crossing intersections is quite inconvenient

Good for you on the emails! I'd be curious what the hurdles are. Are they constricted by the budget? Might be a good reason to get involved in city politics.

Thanks for doing your civic duty, change always comes from the bottom, never from the top!

These things definitely take time and effort! Changing the entire infrastructure overnight is pretty much impossible unless you're being funded by a billionaire. The trick is to get your town or municipality to change the baseline for their infrastructure. This means that every time a street needs to be resurfaced, they are expected to update the street to the new baseline. Really good examples would be protected bike lanes (not just a stripe in the gutter), designated car-free multiuse lanes or trails, and even elevated crosswalks which not only allows for easier accessibility for pedestrians with disabilities or folks walking with a stroller or cart but also calms car traffic. I would definitely encourage advocating for a less car-centric baseline and maybe in 20 years your town will be totally transformed!

Agree! I live in Madison and bike pretty much everywhere, even in winter. They plow the paths when it snows.

its not best tbh i lived there its not good

@@saracynthia stop lying

True but the only people who get paid well are the gentrifiers and the working class slowly gets displaced and forces to live in car dependent places.

@@es-zw3mg I 100% agree with you, I'd rather live in San Francisco or New York than in Phoenix or Houston

@@AlexCab_49 Improve your skills. I hire "working class" finish carpenters at $50/hr

I’m in Davis as well. Probably one of the most bike friendly towns in the world. But, yeah, it’s expensive for most folks. Cheers.

@@zauwee geez Davis maintains its green belt paths poorly though. tree root obstacle course. but yeah, overall enviable. especially when compared to the cycling mediocrity in Solano County.

Great thought!! I live in Bellingham, WA and the housing prices here have SOARED in the last 10-15 years. It's basically like living in a tiny Seattle or San Fran at this point...

Born and raised by SLU. I left in 2004 for Florida but it was rough when I left and only recommend biking out in the county. Roads in horrible condition.

And a suspension seat....

Welcome to Milwaukee!

Can you say Scott holes?

colorado's bike infrastructure is 10x better than wisconsin, even milwaukee

Agreed, you have to be an optimist to cycle, especially road biking.

Also Davis, CA comes to mind... maybe even Folsom, CA or Hoeboken, NJ...

@@SwiftySanders if Davis bothered to actually MAINTAIN its extensive network of bicycle paths. But Americans don’t like maintaining things 😄

@@brianmiller5444 We Americans have this delusion that stuff maintains itself. They think the money we spend to build stuff is enough and that it will never need maintenance. Maintenance is ad hoc. State and Federal government have to keep passing legislation to do maintenance work and a new budget every year. Why can't we just pass financing for infrastructure in perpetuity.

Raleigh, Asheville, Savannah, Charleston, Des Moines, Albany NY, Boise

Madison is probably on that “smaller cities” list too.

hey yo @propelbikes, check out for scammers

St Louis has a homicide rate higher than the worst third world countries. You couldn't even pay me to travel there.

@@PunchingCacti That's a perception problem, that is skewed by the above mention of the STL city-county split. One homicide is too many, but the perception that STL is any more "dangerous" than any other city is just wrong.

yeah I was thinking about that when he said it and it's such a weird thing to explain. But its vital that both city and county step up their game. Thankfully GRG has the ability to operate county, city, and ST Charles. the network effect really makes places more bike able.

@@PunchingCacti That's okay, they don't need you there. Stay in your basement, where it's safe.

How do you address homelessness, when there is an endless stream coming to your community from other less hospitable communities? Say all the red states put homeless in jail, the homeless leave the red state, move to some place where they receive some benefits, then the word gets out, and more and more homeless end up in the blue city.

Portland has an Amtrak station which is an alternative to driving in order to branch out of the city.

25mph limits and bus lanes that drivers respect are better than bike lanes, which will always be filled with debris and idiots