Likeable Bikeable Cities

Last month, I was in Amsterdam to give a talk, and I fell in love with the city. What I liked most was all the bicycles. The Netherlands ranks first in the world in terms of bikes per capita (about 1 bike per person), and in the mid-2000s, bicycle use surpassed car use in Amsterdam. Here's a parking garage in Amsterdam:

Spain, where I am currently living, has also made some great progress on urban bikeability. I have seen bikesharing facilities with spiffy bikes and catchy names in both Seville and Barcelona. Seville has “sevici” (with Spanish pronunciation, you can hear the "bici" for "bicicleta" in there) and Barcelona has “bicing”.  If my kids were a little older, we would have jumped on...

And then there’s San Diego, my home for the past 7 years. San Diego has perhaps the most bikeable (and likeable) weather in the US, yet never makes the list of bike-friendly cities.  Maybe this will change as one of the mayoral candidates unveiled a bike-friendly plan for the city last month.  This is one of those issues on which progressive local government can really make a difference.

- Lesley McAllister