People For Bikes ranks Arlington ahead of DC in their annual city rankings. Alexandria stumbles

Last year, People for Bikes created a new system for identifying and ranking the best U.S. cities and towns for bicycling. In that list, DC came in 8th and Alexandria came in 5th for medium sized cities. Arlington came in 70th. 

But a lot can change in a year.

In the new rankings, Arlington moved up to 5th, while Washington slipped to 13th.  Part of the explanation for the rankings changes is that they had better participation this year, and had better data than in 2018.

The People for Bikes rankings different from the LABs or Bicycling Magazine's because it's 100% data driven and tries not to give credit for things done many years ago, thereby following the Janet Jackson "what have you done for me...lately" rule.

Meanwhile, other cities in the area changed their rankings as well. They've ranked 110 more cities this year, so some slippage is expected, but Alexandria really fell. 

 #136 Alexandria (1.9)

 #203 Silver Spring (1.7)

 #266 Vienna (1.6)

 #330 Rockville (1.5)

Two cities in Colorado ranked at the top - Boulder and Fort Collins -  of the Boulder, Colorado-based organization's rankings. (In related news, South Carolina is once again determined to have the best looking cities according to the South Carolina tourism bureau).

I didn't dig through the data (and can't find it from 2018 anyway) to see why each city moved up or down, but DC's going to need to bring their A game if they want to move into the top 10 next year. 

Comments

[Bill]

These rankings are weird. Fort Collins is great city but they mostly have trails for recreation that people drive their cars to. From my limited experience trying to get around, relying on a bike for transportation in Fort Collins would be difficult. The roads are built for cars traveling at high speeds. Even when there are bike lanes, it is harrowing getting through large intersections or past strip malls with cars turning every which way. Pedestrians and cyclists are a mere afterthought if they are thought of at all. I couldn't find any convenient way to lock up a bike near businesses. Running errands on a bike was regarded as a strange novelty.

P.S. dunno how i mistakenly commented in last year's thread. need more coffee.