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Provincetown has been recognized as America’s most bike-friendly small town for 2021, and the fourth most bike-friendly city in the world, according to a ranking based on data released Thursday by PeopleForBikes.
The group mentioned which city has led in the past, but this year it has expanded to over 750 cities and towns around the world to showcase the best communities for cycling. Included in the list of the world’s top ten in cityratings.peopleforbikes.orgProvincetown had the fourth highest overall score, behind just three small towns in the Netherlands. Provincetown was the only US city in the top 10 list on Thursday.
“It’s always nice to see Provincetown on another Top 10 list, whether it’s the best beaches, the best hotels or the best LGBT destination,” said Rick Ahlberg, president.
Provincetown Cycling Commission, in an email Thursday. “I don’t know if this designation will have any effect on tourism, but I hope it encourages visitors to the city to park and cycle rather than drive. It can help instill some civic pride among residents for something we generally take for granted. “
In the United States, Provincetown ranked # 1 for small towns, while Berkeley, California, # 1 for medium-sized cities, and Brooklyn, New York, # 1 for large cities. The three cities were identical in order, according to the report.
The PeopleForBikes statement said that the winners “have safe and interconnected bike lane, path, path and street systems that make cycling a pleasant and efficient mode of transportation.”
“What I find interesting is that most of the people who live here don’t find anything special about cycling in the city, it’s just the way it always has been,” said Ahlberg. “I got the Cycling Committee involved in these programs because we apparently took our daily cycling culture for granted. I wanted to see how we could identify what makes cycling so much more common here than elsewhere.
Bicycle Defense said one of the reasons for this fourth annual ranking is to provide leaders with concrete ideas to improve cycling in their communities.
It really is as simple as “If you build it, they will come,” said Kyle Wagenschutz, vice president of local innovation at PeopleForBikes, in the announcement.
Ahlberg said the data-driven group rankings are useful in justifying Provincetown’s existing regulations, such as driving back and forth on Commercial Street, and helping the committee demonstrate the importance of continuous improvement projects for people. bikes.
Bicycles are permitted on all roads in Provincetown, and there are more than 7 miles of biking trails within the Cape Cod National Seashore boundary, according to information from the Cycling Commission at bikeprovincietown.org.
The organization said PeopleForBikes’ ranking was based on two factors: the quality of the region’s cycling network (Network Score) and the perception of cycling by the community (Community Score), which includes online surveys of residents. locals and cycling advocates.
Statistics from bikeprovincetown.org show that Provincetown has the highest number of cyclists in Barnstable County, both in percentage and overall. The city’s 12.8% commute to work based on 2015 statistics was significantly higher than other bike-friendly communities, with Nantucket and Falmouth each having a rate of 2.7%, the organization said. .
“Home-to-work statistics are based on the very small population of the city during the year, so they do not take into account the number of people who cycle for their daily groceries or the number of cyclists during the summer season, ”notes the Place.
For the summer 2017 season, the city’s port manager reports that just over 5,700 bike tickets have been purchased for ferries between Provincetown and Boston.
A bit of history noted by bikeprovincetown.org: The first proposals for bike paths to connect with the rest of Cape Cod date back to 1899. In 1967, the Lands County Bike Path became the first bike path in a national park . And in 1978, the state created its first dedicated bike path, the MA-1, 200 miles from Boston to Provincetown.
Provincetown is also the traditional end point for the annual Pan Block Challenge bike ride to raise funds for cancer research.
This year’s PeopleForBikes ranking featured 30 cities in Europe, with Utrecht and Groningen in the Netherlands in first place; 42 in Canada, it is led by the cities of Longueuil and Montreal in Quebec; and 35 in Australia, where Canberra and Alice Springs beat the competition.
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