The national bicycle advocacy organization PeopleForBikes puts Pittsburgh high on its list in the PlacesForBikes City Rating Score — ranking it number 20 overall out of 567 total cities rated in North America.
Pittsburgh gets high marks in the safety category — measuring injuries and fatalities — as well as acceleration, which indicates how quickly a community is improving its bike infrastructure and getting people riding.
Rankings also include ridership (how many people are riding bikes), network (how easy it is to bike where you want to go) and reach (how well the bike network serves everyone in the community). Data for the ratings comes from six sources.
Notes BikePGH, “Where we really fell short was reach, or how well the network serves all parts of the community, as well as the existing network. This is not surprising, as the city has only been installing the on-street bike network since 2007, and there are large gaps, as well as some neighborhoods that have not received any bike infrastructure yet.”
The city’s official Bike(+) Plan is cited by BikePGH as a reason for the high ranking.
“Last fall, the city committed to installing 60 miles of new and improved bike infrastructure and neighborways, based off of this plan, over the next two years. While the COVID crisis has caused delays, this rapid implementation is being branded as MoveForwardPGH. The website intends to provide a one-stop shop for the city’s projects, as well as provide a place for people to learn and to support,” adds BikePGH.
