The folks who brought you Walk Score, an online tool that ranks neighborhoods based on whether you can get anywhere on foot, are expanding to appeal to the biking crowd. This tool is a little more limited (only 10 cities have been scored) but it’s also more in-depth: Walk Score will assume you can stroll to the grocery store down the shoulder of a four-lane road, but Bike Score also covers bike path availability, terrain, and how many people will be joining you on your two-wheeled commute.
Walk Score works basically everywhere — even if you live in the suburbs, you can punch in your address and then feel shitty about your neighborhood. (Mine only hits even 51 because Walk Score counts the local beer/wine/lottery tickets corner shop as “groceries,” and thinks that there are sidewalks on state highways.) Bike Score, though, has only been implemented for the top 10 most bikeable cities (and even then it only covers the city proper, not the outlying metropolitan area). But they’re expanding. If your city isn’t on the list, you can tweet a vote for it to be added to the Bike Score pantheon.
The fact that the most bikeable city, Minneapolis, only achieves a score of 79 out of 100 is pretty sobering — seriously, we don’t have a single city that gets even a B-minus? Still, it’s cool to see how your area stacks up, so if you live in one of these dubious bike Meccas (Portland only got a 70? Portland?), check it out. If not, get voting.
