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Bikes & Pedestrians 5

Long Beach Named No. 3 Bike-Friendliest City in the Nation

By Brian Addison @BrianAddisonLB · On April 29, 2014

And at number three we sit.

The Alliance for Biking & Walking has named Long Beach the third most bike friendly city in the States, just behind San Francisco and Austin (TX)—well, kinda sorta. The point of the report is simple: to make sure that data counts as active transportation, Open Streets, and livable urban centers are becoming the ever popular trend in governing.

This isn’t to say that the trend is massive: only 1% of all trips in the States are taken by bicycle and 10.4% on foot (we can probably thank New York and San Francisco for those numbers, where if taken on their own grow even larger). But the key is not the direct number but its growth: it is increasing at a rate which forces metropolitans to create infrastructure ahead of time.

There are many reasons for Long Beach’s ranking.

Screen Shot 2014-04-29 at 11.04.42 AMLong Beach is home to 4.5 miles of biking facilities per square mile, sitting only behind Austin (4.6 miles/square mile) and San Francisco (7.8 miles/square mile). That is where the No. 3 comes from.

But there are many other places where we both shine and still can work on. We, like our LA neighbor, don’t limit the number of bicycles that can board transit trains. We have a crazy amount of educational and encouragement opportunities that cater to everything from youths and adults needing to learn how to commute safely to Open Streets initiatives. Long Beach has the nation’s largest youth biking participation (GO BEACH!) with nearly 37,000 youth education participants. Much of our City staff partakes in walking and biking, along with a large advocacy staff to help encourage City initiatives.

And in case you were wondering, we have 17 bicycle traffic lights.

Strangely, the report gave us an active bike share system—amusing considering there is not a single kiosk in the city following a long-ago signed contract with Bike Nation. The report claims we have some 25 operating stations that house 400 shared bikes. If someone can please direct us to these mysterious bike share kiosks, let us know because we would love to report on it.

On the places we can work on: Long Beach sits at #24 in regard to overall commuter bike/walk levels; #29 on per capita spending for bike/ped projects; #23 in the lowest bike/ped fatality rates; and #12 on recommending physical activity for its population.

Oh, and the number one state overall? Alaska. That’s right: Alaska is not only home to the nation’s highest level of commuter bicyclists and walkers, but also spends the most per capita on bike/ped projects while boasting of one of the lowest bike/ped fatality rates.

The organization began its benchmarking project in 2003, collecting data for 15 cities and 15 states and publishing the first report in 2004. Now, 52 major U.S. cities partake in the report.

Read the full report here.

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Brian Addison

Writer. Photographer. Thinker. Eater. Long Beacher. Bourbon-er. Don't be afraid to strike up dialogue, especially away from the comment threads and over a beer.

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5 Comments

  • Michael MacDonald says: April 29, 2014 at 5:03 pm

    Looks like there was a typo and you missed mentioning #1 & 2 in the first sentence.

    Reply
  • Dominic says: April 30, 2014 at 10:28 am

    As a cyclist in Long Beach, I call bullshit.

    So do many others: http://redd.it/24be8m

    Reply
    • Brian Addison says: April 30, 2014 at 10:39 am

      Fully agree, to be quite honest. People picked up on a Forbes piece which mislead a TON of people: as stated in the article, we only rank 3 in miles of bike facilities per square mile. That’s it. We have a LOT of work to do before we can start putting ourselves in the top 10 of any US cities in regard to so-called bike ‘friendliness.’

      Reply
  • California Ranked #8 in Bike-Friendliness Throughout U.S. | Longbeachize says: May 12, 2015 at 3:22 pm

    […] would like to think that Long Beach had a bit of a role in gaining that jump given our own #3 ranking in the nation among our biggest […]

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  • Long Beach’s First Ever Beach Streets Ciclovía – Open Thread | Streetsblog Los Angeles says: June 8, 2015 at 12:26 pm

    […] Streets? Long Beach, the aspirational most bike-friendly city in America and demonstrably the most bike-friendly city in L.A. County, has joined the ranks of cities hosting open streets festivals or ciclovías. Long Beach’s […]

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