20 Most Bike-Friendly Cities in the World (Find Out Which U.S. City Made the Cut)

We all know that bicycling is green and healthy, but some cities just make it easier for you to ride a two—or three—wheeler. That’s why urban design consultancy firm Copenhagenize has released its annual index of the best cities in the world for cyclists, with Copenhagen topping this year’s list after coming in second for the past two years. Notably, only one U.S. city cracked the top 20, with 18th-ranked Minneapolis.

Photo Credit: William Perugini / Shutterstock.com

To come up with the list, 122 cities around the planet were ranked based on 13 pieces of criteria including: advocacy; bicycle culture; bicycle facilities (such as bike racks, ramps on stairs, space allocated on trains and buses); bicycle infrastructure (or designated lanes); bike share programs; gender split (ideally 50-50 men and women); modal share for bicycles; modal share increase since 2006 (the year that urban cycling started to kick off); perception of safety (which involves helmet-wearing rates); the political climate regarding urban cycling; social acceptance (as in how drivers and the community at large regard urban cyclists); urban planning; and traffic calming (lowering speed limits, for instance).

The top 20 bike-friendly cities of 2015 are listed below, with last year’s ranking in brackets.

1. [2] Copenhagen

2. [1] Amsterdam

3. [3] Utrecht

4. [new] Strasbourg

5. [8] Eindhoven

6. [9] Malmö

7. [6] Nantes

8. [5] Bordeaux

9. [7] Antwerp

10. [4] Seville

11. [17] Barcelona

12. [10] Berlin

13. [new] Ljubljana

14. [new] Buenos Aires

15. [11] Dublin

16. [new] Vienna

17. [19] Paris

18. [new] Minneapolis

19. [20] Hamburg

20. [14] Montréal

It’s clear that if you want to go on a bike tour somewhere, you’ll probably want to consider Europe. Bike-loving Europeans dominated the top 20, with only Buenos Aires representing South America, and Minneapolis and Montreal stumping for North America. According to Outside Online, Portland, San Francisco and New York City have appeared in the top 20 in previous iterations. Asian bike-centric cities such as Tokyo and Nagoya, which have appeared in the top 20 before, have fallen off this year’s list.