For context, and as outlined on their site, here's how PeopleForBikes qualifies their rankings:
"PeopleForBikes’ City Ratings measures the quality of a city’s bike network. A bike network is a connected system of protected bike lanes, off-street paths, slow (speed) shared streets, and safe crossings that enables people to comfortably bike around a city.
Each city receives a City Ratings score on a scale of 0 - 100. A low score (0-20) indicates a weak bike network, meaning the city lacks safe bikeways or there are gaps in the network. A high score (80-100) indicates that most common destinations are accessible by safe, comfortable bike routes that serve people of all ages and abilities.
City Ratings scores are released annually each summer based on results from our Bicycle Network Analysis (BNA) data analysis software that measures the quality and connectivity of a city's bike network. The BNA assesses six factors captured in the acronym SPRINT: Safe Speeds, Protected Bike Lanes, Reallocated Space, Intersection Treatments, Network Connections and Trusted Data."
For reference, here's a snapshot of how Hickory rated in last year's 2023 PeopleForBikes bike safe city ratings. Please note that there were far fewer municipalities surveyed last year than this year. Nonetheless,...
...as you can see in the graph below comparing some more similarity populated US cities, Hickory's PeopleForBikes ratings have been consistently low over the past 5 years.
That's the problem. Next post very soon: what we're doing in Hickory to improve road safety for all. And that will be a very real and much more positive story.