Virgin created a list of the most bicycle friendly cities in the world. I was under the impression that Switzerland might be right up there, given that I don't cycle It's no surprise I'm wrong.

Basel comes in at #11.

For the cyclists... are you guys catered for in Switzerland. I've heard keen cyclists say that Switzerland is fantastic for cycling.

The article is from Wired online

Luzern is pretty good, there are cycle lanes most places, and for the main part, they avoid the busiest roads. There are plenty of places to park and lock up too.

There's a couple of scary lanes though, going over the bridge for one, stuck in the middle lane with traffic going either side of you.

Still, it's nowhere near the scale of Basel or Zurich, so I imagine the traffic is a lot quiter anyway.

2. Portland, Oregon


Just another reason I love the Northwest.

3. Portland, Dorset

The original and best.
dave

Ah, yes. DaveA the omniscient. Knows everything about everything. I didn't see anywhere in the UK on last list so . . . . . . . . .

Older doesn't always mean better.

Love you too . In the words of John-Lee-Hooker: you dont have to be the best, just be the best until the best comes into town. Portland UK is not quite a city, but more a steep rock peninsula (see Portland stone and cement) , so it makes for some interesting cycling, you may even seen some natives ,whose eyebrows meet in the middle, and are all related.




dave

On the whole I find Zürich pretty good. But they do have a nasty habit here of marking out bike lanes where the road is wide and straight and it is pretty obvious where the bikes go. But as soon as you hit a busy, complicated intersection all the bike markings disappear and you are fighting it out with the traffic.

Zürich downtown is pretty good, but head out toward the industrial areas in any direction and there are raised kerbs, no road markings at all, and my personal favourite: absolutely no demarcation between the road and the pavement. So pedestrians, cyclists and car-drivers engage in a free-for-all. A good example of this is opposite PWC in neu-Oerlikon.

dave

I like Lausanne, when you get to a hill, (which we have many) you can simply take your bike on a bus

1. Amsterdam

A Dutch city had to be at #1, but I'm surprised that not more Dutch cities made it into the list, since virtually all of them are exceedingly bike-friendly. Berlin is a surprise entry - it never appeared very bike-friendly to me.

Here in Basel, it's also good to see that its cycleways are also well-integrated with those in neighbouring France and Germany.

I would say the list is fundamentally wrong, at least in concept: If Amsterdam goes first, then second should be Rotterdam, third The Hague, fourth Utrecht, so on and so forth until you finish the list with all Dutch cities. Or the article should exclude all Dutch cities (and towns), instead of Amsterdam only .
Having said that, I'll look forward to do some biking in Basel!

There are specific criteria with which they rated this on. But I agree, the Netherlands as a whole could have been on there. If you read the comments on the list every one keeps going on about how San Francisco is too hilly to make the list although, nowhere did I see flatness of the city as a determining factor as to who made the list.

Berlin has GREAT bike lanes, and you're allowed to drive on the sidewalks. You're not allowed to drive on the sidewalks here, so you're at the mercy of the automobile drivers. I would never put my life in the hands of the driver here.

I'm surprised San Francisco made it. I thought it was too hilly. Also, they missed Venice Beach-Manhattan Beach, CA.

Being allowed to ride on the footpath then only makes it worse for pedestrians. Whenever I've been in Berlin (top city, by the way), I had to contend with that a lot as a poor pedestrian. Maybe it is better outside the inner city, but I didn't see too much of that.

In 2003, the German Cyclists Club released their list of bike-friendly cities in Germany (PDF link). Among the cities with over 200,000 inhabitants, Berlin ranked at #20. The overall #1, with distance, was Münster in Westphalia.

I'm surprised that Santa Barbara, CA didn't make this list. The bicycle freeways there are amazing. I'd have to say that SB has the edge on Basel, having biked in both cities. SB has the advantage that you aren't sharing the road as much as in Basel.

That said, the bicycle routes here in Switzerland are great. They're well marked and mostly safe. There are however, some pretty dangerous crossings and roundabouts that have to be negotiated at times.

Portland might be okay for cycling, but the rest of the NW isn't particularly good. Seattle's downright frightening outside of the major bike paths like the Burke-Gilman. And when you get out to the countryside in most of the US, cycling is pretty dangerous, when compared to Switzerland.

This is probably a stupid question, but don't the ubiquitous tram tracks in Basel make for some pretty challenging cycling i.e. getting your wheels stuck in the sunken tracks?

I'm a regular cyclist in Zurich and never got stuck because I always pay attention. But I've forgotten that the tracks can get slippery in the rain once.

This is true in Lausanne also - the only bike lanes are in the places that you least need them. Most accidents happen at intersections, and that is precisely where they decide to not put the bike lanes.

As for cycling on the sidewalk / pavement, I hate the idea except in very specific circumstances. I want every driver to see me, and the best way to do that is to be on the road - where they are looking for other vehicles, rather than on the sidewalk - where they generally ignore until the last second. Cyclists travel too fast to be on the sidewalk. Plus, as another poster mentioned, cyclists on the sidewalk have many more encounters with pedestrians than when they are on the road. Inexperienced cyclists "feel" safer on the sidewalk than on the road, but they are not (however, this is not true in places like the Netherlands where everyone - drivers and pedestrians - seemed to be aware of cyclists all the time, it certainly is a great place to ride).

Only after a Basel curry night and handfull of beers

In part it's a "great place" in this respect because drivers, by law, don't have the right of way anymore - basically someone on a bike can do anything and if there's an accident/incident with a automobile, the driver will be found at fault. (Won't help the broken bones of the cyclist but.... )

So drivers have to have eagle eyes and lots of patience - "all the time" as your point out - for any crazy person on a bike - and some people on bikes take advantage of it on the road/in the towns.

I'm sure A'dam aced the criteria for getting drivers to heel to bikes....