urban rider

No it hasn't.

DVC45

I'm doing just fine here in Corpus.

gbcb

I'm going to say Hong Kong. A recent article in HK Magazine quoted a government official as saying they don't recognise bicycles as vehicles, and don't want to encourage bicycle use. Hong Kong island has lots of of two lane, high-speed, twisty roads with no shoulders or sidewalks and lots of blind corners. There is ZERO infrastructure devoted to bicycles as transportation (bike racks and the like). Cars are not at all used to dealing with bicycles, and often drive very aggressively. Street-level pollution is nasty.

The situation in Kowloon (the non-island part of Hong Kong) is better since there's a bit more room. But still, it's not a city that's at all set up for bike commuting.

All of this kind of sucks because I'm thinking of moving back there... need to figure out how I can make a bike commute work!

Izengabe

In defense of Spain, one of the reasons it is so bad to commute by bike in big cities there is Spain's mass transit system is so good that most people commute to work by foot or bus.

New York in many ways has a similar problem. A lot of people I know would like to bike to work but it is just much easier for them to take the subway.

Also it is a lot easier to commute by bike in smaller Spanish cities. I know when I lived in San Sebastian in college a lot of us commuted to school on rollerblades.

Phantoj

I'd say you haven't done much biking in the cites of the midwest, then.

dynaryder

Washington DC.

1) Bad roads. Georgetown still has some cobblestones and trolly tracks,Union Station is positively cratered.
2) Diplomats. Run you down with no consiquences.
3) Aggro drivers. People just don't care about anything outside their vehicle.
4) Cell phone use. Tell someone what they're doing is illegal and they threaten to run you over.
5) Lemmings. People cross the street wherever they feel like.
6) Bad bike lanes. Every single one in the door zone. Bike and bus only lanes in Chinatown are ignored.
7) Cops. Don't know bike laws/don't like cyclists. Blame most accidents on cyclists,hate taking stolen bike reports. Even a local cop admits this is true.
8) Hills. I live at Cathedral. I'll never ride fixed in this town.

Shame really,since bikes are the only way to get through traffic and parking them is so easy.

donnamb 

By PNW standards, Bellevue looks pretty rough to me. Driving there sends me over the edge. I haven't had access to a bike when I've visited. Compared to Detroit, however, it is an absolute paradise. For a suburban environment, I always see lots of bikes. That's heartening.

gulfcoast

MEMPHIS, TN . I'm convinced that the majority of people of the greater metro Memphis area do not believe a bicycle can share the road with an automobile. Drivers here suck. First of all, bike lanes here are non-existant. There is zero bike awareness or the potential of progressing in this direction. SUV's, big pick-ups, and aggresive multi-tasking drivers create a extemely dangerous environment. I have lived here for a year and a half and realize more and more that Memphis doesn't get it nor wants to. For being a large metropolitan city, it is quite disturbing to see that there is zero effort to encourage people to use any other form of transportation other than a car. When the obesity rates here are off the charts and traffic congestion is a constant struggle, one would think with the developement of a little bike infrastructure, there would be the possibility of great positive changes for the city and its health. Unfortunately, this is not the case.

serac

Hehehe...that is my commute. I ride from Issaquah to Kirkland most days which takes me through a lot of Bellevue. Drivers here have a special hostility towards cyclists. Where their anger comes from I have no idea. The downside is that it mandates I be more aggressive in taking space which escalates the hostility.

Today, I had an officer from the King County Sheriff's dept inform me that I can't ride on the road. WTF? I ignored him as he was stuck directing traffic and rode on.

I worry more about low visibility in the rain. Even taking out the people who would intentionally make your life difficult, in rainy conditions many people can't see very well and won't see you no matter what. Everybody speeds, no shoulders, urban battle, but doable.

tld

I'll pipe up... It's bad here. very few bike lanes and lots of impatient drivers in large SUVs. They just finished a multi-million dollar street re-modeling in Columbia in an area called 5-points. They added bike lanes on the main road - those new bike lanes are perfectly in the door zones and are frequently blocked by the beer trucks delivering to the bars.

Ian Freeman

I met a guy at the United Bicycle Institute from Atlanta, a fellow named Thomas. We would trade stories about bad drivers, his were always the worst. A lot of pickup drivers trying to run him off the road. Seems like a tough place to spin on two wheels.

CliftonGK1

They spend $2200/month on a 500 sq.ft. condo in a highrise complex where it takes 75 minutes to make their 4 mile commute to work in a $75,000 sports car which can do 180mph, but they've never had out of 2nd gear.
And you zip past them every morning on a bicycle... They're mad at their own poor choices, and misdirect that anger toward you.

Gromit

With everyone piling on Detroit, I have to voice my disagreement. I ride in Detroit at least twice a week. Actual riding in the city is very good - wide streets with no bike lanes (which I prefer). The roads are in passable condition although certainly they need some fixing up as do all of the Michigan roads. You can commute in Detroit on decent minimally traveled roads without much hassle from drivers. The only problems you get in Detroit are from the suburbanite drivers coming into the city. They, not the city residents, are who you should fear.

For that reason, I submit that the worst commuting cities are the suburban detroit cities like Mt. Clemens, Taylor, Wyandotte, Roseville, and Harrison Twp. It's when you get into Macomb County or downriver that you get all the redneck pieces of **** in their SUVs and pickups (stereotypical I realize) who scream get off the road or swerve to try to intimidate bikers. Suburban detroit riding is the absolute worst. Unfortunately, these morons also drive in Detroit.

I live in the burbs (grosse pointe) and I have honestly never had one problem with detroiters. In fact, I get all my "go lance" cheers, and waves in Detroit. Detroiters are way, way more friendly than you give them credit for.

I make this offer. On Saturdays we ride from Grosse Pointe to downtown detroit and belle isle and back. On Sundays, we ride out into Macomb County. Ride both rides with me, and tell me whether you still feel detroit is the worst city to ride in.

StephenH

I haven't been in other places to compare, but here in the Dallas area, the roads are very poorly laid out for biking. Many major roads have fast traffic, no shoulder, sidewalks not rideable, but if you try to go through the side-streets, you can't get from one subdivision to the next. It's kind of funny, but sad. There are a few bike trails around, mainly for entertainment, but so much more could be done.

Artkansas 

I don't think that Little Rock is absolutely the worst, but its below mediocre.

Steep hills, narrow potholed streets and drivers who have no clue that a bicycle actually belongs on the highway and have no hesitation in saying so make it pretty daunting.

I hear a lot of people criticising Florida, and since I cut my teeth riding on Florida roads,(yes I still had baby teeth when I tackled Highway 41 the Tamiami Trail) that was kind of my standard for bicycling conditions. Little Rock is right about there, but hillier. It makes La Quinta seem like heaven.

Booger1

L.A....8 million people,half of them going to work in the morning,most of those can't drive or don't pay attention to the lights and signs.

bentstrider

I say we all just watch them crash into objects, each other.
Then melt the vehicles down into ingots.
It's not like anyone's going to miss them anyway.

Lamplight

Maybe you guys have noticed this too, but here it seems like drivers get progressively worse each month. I keep wondering what the breaking point will be, because there's no way you can keep becoming more careless and not eventually have hundreds of accidents all the time. As a matter of fact, on the weekends it seems that I can hear sirens almost constantly, so maybe the breaking point is here!

vrkelley

Anything you can do to help the cars get around you will add to your visibility and safety. Being well lit (not drunk hee hee) with a mirror helps...watching and waiving the drivers to pass also cuts back on the road rage esp. if there's a long line of cars. When the first monkey passes, the rest do OK also. Best wishes on a safe commute.

turtle77

OMG, my friend, I went to Penn State Beaver for a year and a half. I hated it and moved to Boston to finish school (where, coincidentally, I began to commute by bicycle). I CANNOT EVEN COMPREHEND the idea of riding my bike in Beaver. Kudos to you!!

fat_bike_nut

I've driven through Bellevue before, never tried riding it yet. The drivers are quite rude, honking at everybody else for no reason. I've had someone run a stop sign on me at Factoria and the guy behind me honked at me as if it was MY fault someone else ran the stop sign

Then when this same jerk followed me into the Factoria Mall parking lot, he honked me again for turning into a parking space before he could. Hello? I was in front

CliftonGK1's post sure explains a lot of it to me...looked like this guy's car was a shiny new red sports car

However, Bellevue isn't really that bad when it comes to traffic, if you compare it to where I'm from (SoCal).

KingTermite 

I'm gonna have to tag Florida. I was in the Tampa/St.Petersburg/Clearwater area.

That area is the reason I NEVER commuted until now (that I live in Bellevue, WA). Hardly any bike lanes, very few shoulders, crazy traffic, aggressive drivers, dumbass rednecks who think bikers do NOT belong on the roads, etc.....

I wanted to, but never had the nerve to commute when I lived in Clearwater. Both places I lived in were less than 10 miles from work, but there was NO route I could take that didn't put me on nasty busy roads with no shoulder or bike lanes. It seemed like I was hearing stories every week about some cyclist in the area being hit by a car.

I remember when I first started BF, somebody in A&S found a list of worst cities for cyclists due to car/bike accidents in the U.S. If I recall correctly, Tampabay was either ranked #1 or at least in the top 10 for worst cities.

KingTermite 

It's all relative.

Recently (6 months ago) moving here from Tampabay in Florida, I feel like Bellevue is a dream by comparison. Drivers are so much nicer, traffic is not as bad (probably because speed limits are much lower), etc......

I guess it's all a matter of comparison.

Butterthebean

I have to concur. Houston is one of the worst car cities in the country (probably right behind LA). The mantra here is, "Man, Wife and 2.3 SUV's per family". Every other person here drives a 4 door truck. Most folks own at least one gun. Public transportation is almost non existant except in the inner city. Unfortunately, most of the 4 million people here live in the ever growing suburbs. The bike lanes here are rare indeed, and the ones that do exist are useless...basically the occassional 1/4 mile bike lane to no where. And the traffic on most nonresidential roadways drives at 45mph or above....sometimes way above.

But the thing that makes it so bad here...and I suspect this is the problem most everywhere....is the driver's attitudes toward cyclists. They just don't believe we have any right on the road. How dare we delay them by 5 seconds. Of course, the kicker is, there are red lights every 200 yards. So even if they have to slow down a bit to get around a cyclist, they still end up stopping at the same light just up the road, meaning they don't get to their destination any faster. WHY WON'T THEY REALIZE THIS???

One thing I've noticed, drivers (everwhere) would rather swerve into another lane without really looking than slow down, even a little bit.

And let's not forget the wonderful heat and humidity we have. It was 90 every day up until just last week, when we finally got a decent cool front.

But all that being said, I've still managed to commute for the last 4 years by bike. I try to ride smart and don't let myself get put in harms way. I don't take risks and I don't assume the cagers will give me the right of way, even when it's mine. I obey all traffic laws and ride as predictably as I can.

And everyone I know thinks I'm crazy for commuting by bike. They are sure I will meet an untimely demise. I am sure they will die first of a heart attack from chronic couch potato-ness.

Psydotek

+1. Maybe not the worst, but the city was definitely built for cars.