Copenhagen is too heigh on that list I think. It could still be a lot better. Still lots of dangerous right turns and non protected bike lanes and poor parking options. I’m most salty about lack of parking actually. Train stations also often lack elevators with proper space.
Copenhagen is high because this list is from “Copenhagenize”, and their list is shit https://social.notjustbikes.com/@notjustbikes/115605190282240272
I heavily doubt this list. As a NL native, I would guesstimate that probably the first 50/150 on this list should be dutch cities. Ofc that would be a boring list, but I have been in somewhere between 50 and a 100 EU cities and it looks to me like we have an extreme luxury here with our biking situation.
I’ve seen some larger cities in EU that seemed doable on the bike, but even then, lanes end at random spots and the network is incomplete. Are you supposed to mount the curb in those situations? Or take your chances mixing in motorized traffic with your 20kg vehicle? And the smaller EU cities I’ve seen weren’t better.
Plus, Amsterdam could be fun to bike around if it wasn’t bursting at the seams from the high amount of tourist bike noobies trying their first few km on the pedals. I’m happy they’re here, but it’s not an improvement to biking 😄 better off taking the tram.
Exactly. Amsterdam at no4? Above Groningen? Above Houten, the city designed around traveling by bike? Both of which aren’t in this top 10? I also call bullshit on this list
Houten was not included in the survey. They only considered cities above 250k population and then somehow limited it to 100 cities. They also only consider the five best cities that participated in their survey, which mostly affected a bunch of large cities in Germany, including Berlin and Hamburg.
The 2025 Index ranks 100 cities which have been carefully selected in a transparent, multi-step process. The selection started off with a list of all urban areas of more than 250,000 inhabitants, while also including capital cities with smaller populations when their cycling modal share had become significant.
Can confirm, any average dutch backwater has better bike infrastructure than Cph. It’s not just bike lanes, the transitions, signalling and direction changes are far better thought out.
What you mean a NL indigenous person?
Yeah as in born and raised. I guess the raised part is most important for this.
I meant where, NL mean?
The Netherlands
Oh, okay, never seen the abbreviation. sorry,
Wild that you’ve never seen it, but I’m glad you learned
Paris at 5! Mon œil!
Utrecht at 1! Mijn hemel!
Helsinki? Lmao no.
I was surprised to find it on the list. I would not want to bike in Helsinki
Really, they have huge reputation for that?
The main network of wide bike paths is nice, but outside of that the painted on lanes and gutters can be unreliable. At times a lane just ends or abruptly turns into a one way lane. While bike infra is being improved, the city itself is still very much designed cars first. I suppose it’s definitely not the worst, but I am at least disappointed if there’s no more cities with better bike infra than that.
I cycle to work out of town when there’s no snow on the ground (I’m lucky in that it’s mostly parks, with only a couple of roads to cross on the 15km route), but it’s a lot easier to take public transit when heading downtown.
Oh yeah and Oulu in northern Finland should be mentioned for their exceptional winter maintenance of bike paths. Check out https://mas.to/@pekkatahkola
There Bicycle paths are do they not allow motorized vehicles? There bicycle paths are not complete enough, that riders have to leave them, for the stupid rest of bicycle riders options?
Yes, there’s nice dedicated bike paths where only bicycles (and also e-scooters and such) are allowed, but there’s not enough of them to be able to get everywhere.
That sucks! Sounds too much like South Florida.!
Ghent absolutely does not deserve to be #3. There are probably at least 10 Dutch cities better than Ghent.
Lol, if Seoul is no. 5 in Asia, it means there are no cyclist-friendly cities in Asia. Maybe Christchurch is better, but even Taipei didn’t strike me as cyclist-friendly at all compared to most European cities I know.
MÜNSTER!
Doesn’t deserve a place in the top 10. Maybe in the top 50. But the list is bs anyway.
Oh i dont know how it is there. But i just like it mentioned :÷
Even though some claim otherwise, it’s hands down the best city for cycling in Germany. But it still doesn’t hold a candle against a lot of cities in NL… lovely city though, and very young/full of university students.
Yes. That i know
What the hell are these regional groups? Why is Mexico not part of North America? Why is ALL of Asia grouped with Australia and NZ?
Mexico not being there means a white USAmerican or Canadian made this list.
Montréal being at n.1 in NA but n.15 worldwide is representative of how sucky bike stuff is here. Although montreal’s central neighborhoods would definitely crack the top ten if they were counted alone.
Not Just Bikes on YouTube does a simultaneously loving and hateful video on Montreal biking. If I remember correctly, he basically says it’s a very small region of Montreal that is bikeable, and that it’s really piecemeal between neighborhoods as to what the infrastructure looks like. There was also something about disconnection from certain metro lines, but I don’t remember the details on that clearly.
Also, I need to say out loud to someone that Guadalajara is in North America too… Wonder how it compares with Montreal for biking, given that they’re somehow not on the same list?
tbf since that video Montreal has gotten significantly better, and the places he complained about not being connected to transit have since been connected to the network by the new light metro.
The image shows that Montréal is in 15th place worldwide while Guadalajara is n.73
That’s great to hear! You’re reigniting my desire to move to Montreal… If it was a Spanish speaking city instead of French I think I’d already be there.
The video had mentioned that the city was considering more car-free summer streets. Do you know if that has that come to fruition?
Frankly I haven’t paid too much attention to car-free streets outside of my neighborhood, where other than a few pilot projects nothing much has materialized. Given the progress in other aspects of the city though I wouldn’t be suprised though. I do know much of the downtown central road was redone to make it go from 4 lanes to 1 with the rest being given to pedestrians.
for the language thing if you move in to a more anglo neighborhood like mile end you can get away with not knowing any french for a while, and there are good (free!) french tutoring programs available to immigrants. You will need to learn french within like two-ish years though because then the Quebec government will stop sending you english versions of paperwork.
Living in France, from what I know I disagree. Grenoble blows Paris away easily.
I literally have no idea how any city on planet earth could be more cyclist-friendly than Amsterdam. They are treated with more respect than cars and pedestrians.
The number 1 is Utrecht which is basically a very similar city to Amsterdam but a bit smaller and less over-crowded with tourism and just in general. It makes sense to me.
Helsinki #6? Hmm okay
The other ones must be very bad.
Just came here to check if there’s no polish cities. There shouldn’t be! But we often end up on such lists for no reason I could understand (lobbying? marketing?)
No Spain? Last I checked cycling here was very encouraged
Spanish cities are among the worsed, when it comes to cycling modal share. It is very easy to find large streets within cities, which lack any sort of cycling infrastructure. That is not the case for quite a few other countries.
Just to be clear Spain is generally very walkable and has good public transport, but just not cycling.
Interesting hearing bicyclist in the locations listed, I assume, calling BS on the list.
