People for Bikes recognized Madison as the 9th best city for cycling in its 2019 PlacesForBikes City Ratings. Madison’s ranking changed slightly from its 2018 6th place ranking. However, Madison is one of only four cities to be ranked in the top 10 in both 2018 and 2019.

The City adopted a Complete Street policy, which considers all road users in the roadway design process, including pedestrians, bicycles, handicapped users, transit, freight operations and other motor vehicles. The City has built a robust multimodal transportation network. It has been ranked as one of the most walkable communities in the Midwest and one of the best bike cities in the country.

“Madison is proud of its bicycle culture and we are pleased to be ranked 9th out of 510 cities,” said Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway. “However, we recognize that there are still improvements to be made to ensure that everyone in our city has a safe, reliable way to bike for both transportation and recreation. Our bicycle facilities need to work for people of all ages and abilities.”

The PlacesForBikes City Ratings uses a scoring system to rank cities based on five key areas: Ridership (how many people ride bikes), Safety (how safe is it to ride bikes), Network (how easy is it for people to get where they need to go), Acceleration (how fast is the bike network expanding) and Reach (how well the network serves all neighborhoods in the community). 

Madison scored highest in safety and in its overall bicycle network with a lower score in acceleration. “Our acceleration score will improve over the next year with a number of new projects on the horizon including a trial of a parking protected bike lane on Bassett St, an underpass of Gammon Rd on the West Towne Path and a series of new bicycle pavement markings,” said Yang Tao, the City Traffic Engineer. “Projects like these and others will also continue Madison’s commitment to a safe, well connected network of bicycle routes.”

Find out more about the ratings at People for Bikes.