There are particular occasions all of us sit up for with quivering anticipation:
And Individuals For Bikes would love you to imagine that a type of is the discharge of their annual metropolis rankings, which I assume simply occurred:
So which is one of the best metropolis in America to trip round in on a hybrid whereas carrying half-shorts and turning your helmeted head nervously each few yards for concern of an overtaking driver in a leased crossover automobile? Effectively, earlier than we get to that, let’s have a look at my metropolis. BECAUSE THIS IS MY BLOG GODDAMMIT!
So right here we go:
I had no thought wat a metropolis rating of “55” means, so I headed to their interactive map of “high-stress and low-stress areas for bicycling in New York Metropolis:”
Sadly this left me much more confused. Apparently an space with a low BNA rating is crimson, and an space with a excessive BNA rating is blue:
However what’s a BNA rating? Would you like a excessive one or a low one? I had no thought whether or not I ought to mourn or have fun:
I figured zooming in alone space could be useful, but it surely wasn’t in any respect, because it was just about equal components blue and crimson, and in a approach that made little sense to me:
So I learn extra in regards to the BNA rating on their website, and that wasn’t useful both:
Like, I get it measures how helpful and cozy the bike community is or no matter, however I nonetheless had no thought how one can interpret the rating. I imply positive, we’re speaking bike advocates right here, so you possibly can typically assume blue means good and crimson means dangerous, as a result of that’s how their minds work. However I nonetheless couldn’t reconcile that towards the precise map of the town:
If crimson is dangerous then why is Central Park and the Brooklyn waterfront crimson? Each are about as low-stress because it will get and connect with different areas. But if blue is sweet then how can most of inside Brooklyn and Queens be good? (Journey a motorcycle throughout the size of Brooklyn or Queens. I promise you it’s not good–not less than in the best way the types of people that take heed to organizations like Individuals for Bikes would take into account good.) The islands of Jamaica Bay are crimson, which if crimson is dangerous is smart, since they’re simply marshes and sandbars, they don’t connect with something, and also you’d solely go there on a ship to dig clams. However half of Metropolis Island is crimson and the opposite half is blue, which…why?
I dunno. None of it made a lick of sense so far as I might inform.
As for that total rating of 55, I assume it places us proper within the center:
Most individuals could be happy with that, however for New York Metropolis being within the center is the kiss of loss of life, so presumably that is Individuals For Bikes’s approach of subtly giving us the finger.
We’re certainly primary with regards to mediocrity:
As for the highest massive cities, I assume that is the rostrum:
I dunno, I’m afraid I can’t take any of those significantly as “massive cities.” They’ve bought about as many individuals because the City of Hempstead on Lengthy Island, and except for San Francisco they’ve bought a decrease inhabitants density in addition.
As for one of the best cities total, I’m afraid I can’t take these significantly on any stage:
These usually are not cities. That is like saying one of the best grocery retailer in America is the salt water taffy shoppe at Disneyland.
Please be aware that is not me feeling superior as a New Yorker; it’s fairly the other, I can guarantee you, and I’m effectively conscious I’m a dupe dwelling in an overpriced craphole. The truth is our public transit system is so pathetic they’ve given up on tracks and simply drive the trains round on vehicles as an alternative:
Hey, it beats taking the bus.
And not less than we’ve bought wildlife:
Best metropolis on Earth.
