Tom Babin crowdsourced a table of average Bike Score ratings for Calgary's neighborhoods yesterday and has a ranking of neighborhoods by bike score up on the Herald's Pedal Blog today. (Scroll down all the way for comments.) The results are interesting. The Bike Score of an address takes into account proximity to destination/amenities like grocery stores and restaurants and connections, bike infrastructure (lanes and paths), topography (hills), and cycling mode share (although it's not clear if that is also taken into account in the Canadian data). This is, I think, a sound methodology, but it looks like the scores returned are more an indication of how bikeable a neighborhood could be (if drivers slowed down and respected cyclists, our "bikeways" actually had lines and signs and traffic calming, our grocery stores actually had bike parking, etc.). The top two spots are taken by Hillhurst and Mission with an average ranking of 100 (perfect score, "biker's paradise"). The average for the entire city is a 74.5 -- which would put Calgary in the #2 spot in the US, right behind Minneapolis and ahead of Portland! So: take this with a grain of salt. The article includes a poll for how bikeable you think your neighborhood is.
very interesting!
Submitted by critninja on
I find the community results interesting but also confusing.
I am led to believe that the Bike Score is more about getting around your community and less about getting somewhere. But isn't getting between communities at least as importnat as cycling within your own community?
I guess thats why communities that are considered inner city, like Bankview, are ranked below communities in the 'burbs, like Harvest Hills.
What this score does seem to say is that Calgary is a good city to cycle in, even of you are in the suburbs. This is something I have always felt and with all the bike improvements coming I think we'll have an even better city to bike in.
Afterall, not everyone can bike commute to work but most everyone should be able to ride to the corner store for a jug of milk - and maybe thats the point?