Longmont is considered one of the best mid-sized cities in the U.S. for biking, according to the 2023 rankings from PeopleForBikes.
The city jumped from No. 88 in 2022 to No. 10 this year out of 499 medium cities — considered places with a population between 50,000 and 300,000. The only mid-sized city in Colorado ranking higher than Longmont is Boulder in fourth place.
PeopleForBikes scores cities based on its Bicycle Network Analysis, which takes into account how easy it is to bike to access people, education, services, shopping, recreation and transit services.
Longmont improved its score from 36 in 2022 to 69 in 2023. The average score among all U.S. cities is 23 out of 100, while cities in the top 10 score 55 out of a 100 on average.
The top three medium sized cities according to PeopleForBikes are Davis, California; Akeny, Iowa and Berkeley, California. No large Colorado cities made the top 10 in the PeopleForBikes ranking, while two small Colorado towns — Crested Butte and Aspen — made the top 10 for their population size.
To make a city great for biking, BikesForPeople recommends things like keeping traffic speeds low by design, building bike networks in a timely matter and upgrading existing lanes.
