Twin Cities bicycle advocates, with the help of bike friendly Mayor RT Rybak, have finally pushed Portland, OR aside and claimed the top rank for bike friendly cities. Bicycling magazine recently awarded the top spot to Minneapolis, much to Portland’s chagrin.

Bicycling Magazine and other organizations rate cities on the number of bike lanes and paths, the laws and other such things, but perhaps the best indicators of a bike friendly city are more cultural. Some examples:

When the Nature Valley Grand Prix bike race came to uptown Minneapolis,  the pro riders took time out from their warm-up laps to photograph the overflowing bike parking space near the course.  The Pros had never seen so many spectators arrive by bicycle.

College students, fresh in town from outstate, are often startled when asked “Where’s your bike?” as they prepare for a night on the town.

The Stupor Bowl, the largest and oldest Alley Cat race, is run on Super Bowl weekend in mid-February.

The Minneapolis Institute of Art, a staid institution more accustomed to working with high end donors than bicyclists, was talked into holding a bike themed art show. Ridrs were allowed to ride their bikes through the lobby into an inner courtyard, where the bikes were parked and watched over by security.  The response from cyclists was overwhelming, and eye opening to the museum’s curators and publicists.

Average ridership on the Midtown Greenway,  a once abandoned railway running through the heart of Minneapolis,  hovers around 3,000 cyclists per day. with records of up to 5,000 riders in some areas.

This, along with over 60 bike shops in the metro area, thousands of cyclists riding into downtown Minneapolis daily, more thousands of families and individuals riding the bike paths, and a general sense that bicycling is cool, make bicycling feel like an important part of the fabric of life in the Twin Cities. As a cyclist, these are the things that make Minneapolis a great city to live and work in.