CNN tries to reinvent the wheel by listing top bike-friendly U.S. cities
CNN has tried to reinvent the (ahem) wheel by coming up with its own list of most bike-friendly U.S. cities. Check out the list on its website.
Not surprisingly -- maybe because the League of American Bicyclists (which the authors consulted) uses objective standards to determine the same annually -- CNN's list of eight (why only eight?) bike-friendly cities is topped by Portland, Minneapolis and Boulder. (In 2010, Bicycling magazine ranked Minneapolis at the very top of a list of 50, and above Portland. CNN appears to have reversed that outcome.)
The CNN piece attests that the magazine's choice of Minneapolis over LAB's platinum-level bike-friendly community Portland "incited outrage in the bicycling community." As I recall, biking advocates and tourism boosters in both cities responded as expected, with excitement in one case, disappointment in the other. But outrage? Over a subjective list? That I don't remember.
At least CNN gives Minneapolis its due and gets the perspective of Freewheel Bike sales manager Stephen Cottrell.
Other Midwesterner metropolises included: Madison, Wisconsin, and Chicago. "Madison gets bike-friendly points for being filled with dedicated cyclists," CNN says, and Chicago is credited with having more than 200 kilometers of bike lanes.
Although none of this is new information, hopefully CNN's list reaches readers less in the know about the great cycling to be found in the upper Midwest.