Streets for People / Key West Improves Its PeopleforBikes Bike Score and Ranks as #1 in Florida, #44 in U.S.A. and #116 in World

Since 2018 PeopleforBikes has annually put out its City Ratings, ranking the best places to bike. On June 24 they released their 2024 ratings. For the fifth year in a row, Key West improved its score – now 68 on a 100-point scale – and is ranked the #1 city in Florida, #44 in the U.S.A., #110 in the World and #37 of small cities (less than 50,000 residents) in the United States. This year PeopleforBikes rated 2,579 cities worldwide, 2,300 of which are in the U.S.

A score of 50 is considered the minimum for “good” bicycling and only eight percent (8%) of U.S. cities achieved this. The average score for U.S. cities is only 25, two points higher than the year before. PeopleforBikes ranked the top 20 City Ratings Score Improvements over the last five years from 2020 to 2024 and Key West ranked 8th going from 39 points to 68 over that period. In this context, Key West’s score is indeed impressive.

This is great news for our little island paradise, and it shows progress. However, analysis of the data and discussions with Key West bicycle advocates over the years reveals that much of our high score and top ranking has a lot to do with natural factors. We’re small – and most of the cities atop the rankings are in the small category. We also have a compact mostly gridded street system that is conducive to getting around. And while the methodology doesn’t take it into account, we’re flat and have good weather year round. All of which act as natural advantages and as a result lots of us bike.

We’ve documented recent bicycle progress here, here, here, here, and here, but in the grand scheme of things these are mostly small investments. And they often pale in comparison to the big misses we’ve discussed here, here, here, here, here, and here. So, we continue to ask the question, in this our fifth year covering the annual ratings story ( 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020), given our natural advantages, what would Key West’s score and ranking be if we really tried and put substantial dollars into making our island into a biking paradise? Let’s dive into the 2024 City Ratings and talk about Key West…

The PeopleForBikes Annual City Ratings = Tough Standards

Each year PeopleForBikes has rated more and more cities, so there’s more competition between places in the rankings. This year they added 816 U.S. cities  for a total of 2,300 and another 133 abroad for a total of 2,579 worldwide. Many of the cities beyond our borders are considered the best bicycle cities in the world and PeopleforBikes does this to provide U.S. cities with some context.

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. Sixteen of the international cities including Paris and Amsterdam scored more than 80 points. Thirteen cities in the U.S. did, all of them were in the small city (less than 50,000 residents) category though.

Florida cities, even with Key West’ high scoring pulling them up, averaged a dismal 16 points and this is one reasons why we don’t like some people’s car-centric mainland attitudes towards our streets here on the island, especially in old town. PeopleforBikes says scoring 50+ points is considered a “significant tipping point on a place becoming a great place to bike.” Only 183 cities or eight percent (8%) of the total scored 50 plus points in the U.S. The average score for all cities was 28 worldwide and 25 in the U.S. Tough standards indeed!

 Bicycle Network Analysis (BNA) Is the Base of the Score

City ratings are based on the Bicycle Network Analysis (BNA) Score, which measures the quality of a city’s bicycle network. A bike network is defined as the system of paths, trails, and streets that someone riding a bike can use to get to everyday destinations. High-scoring cities often perform well across six factors captured in the acronym SPRINT: safe speeds, protected bike lanes, reallocated space for biking and walking, intersection treatments, network connections, and trusted data.

Each city’s score is then broken down into six categories: People – access to parts of the city where residents live; Opportunity – access to jobs and schools; Core Services – access to places that serve basic needs like hospitals and grocery stores; Recreation – access to parks and trails; Retail – access to major shopping centers; and Transit – access to major transit hubs.

You can read more about SPRINT at How to Improve Your City’s Score. For more granular detail on how the BNA works, read the full methodology. For historical data and details on the software, visit their BNA Mechanics website.

Key West’s BNA Scorecard: Slower Speeds, Downtown Grid and Some New Traffic Calming Account for Improved Score

Key West has a BNA Score of 68. The essence of the score uses mapping data software to figure out if people can get to places from where they live or “neighborhoods” to jobs, schools, core services, recreation, retail, and transit safely by bike. The safely part is measured by street speeds. If 20 mph or lower that’s good. If the street has higher speeds, does it have protected bike lanes and intersection treatments to get people around to counteract the higher speeds? Are these bike facilities connected?

As Key West is so compact and has an efficiently laid out street grid, it isn’t surprising that people can find a way to get to most places in a safe manner. The grid helps because if a person perceives one street or a few blocks as unsafe, there’s usually a slow street one can use a block or two away. In contrast many places laid out after WWII don’t have this and so people on bikes are forced into unsafe situations to get across town. Thus, all those awful scores in the suburban sprawl that is mainland Florida.

Below are the scores for Key West for the last four years. Access from neighborhoods to jobs, recreation and most things seems good. The only category that isn’t is “Core Services” or places like hospitals and grocery stores. When you realize that both Publix stores and Winn Dixie are on N. Roosevelt and the hospital is on College Road where there are no bike lanes, you understand the low score of 51.

Overall access is visually apparent looking at the BNA Score Stress Map. And it confirms what everyone who lives here already knows. The dangerous streets, those PeopleForBikes depicts in red, are N. Roosevelt Boulevard, Truman Avenue, Flagler Avenue, the Palm Avenue Bridge, Kennedy Drive and College Road. Mostly places where the speeds are above 20 mph. Many don’t have bike lanes either.

If we compare this year’s Stress Map with the previous two years (below), one can’t help but notice the number of high stress (red) streets downtown has gone down over time. As the City hasn’t done a lot of new bike infrastructure in Old Town (the new bike lane on United Street wouldn’t yet be in the data), we think it might have something to do with the mapping data acknowledging the City’s low speed limit city-wide of 20 mph on most streets. When we talked with the City’s Multi-Modal Coordinator Ryan Stachurski last year, he verified that yes, he and his team of interns “corrected the speed limits available to the algorithm at OpenStreetMaps” which is the street mapping data that PeopleForBikes uses in the BNA. Ryan added that the City Commission lowered the city-wide speed limits in 2020 on the recommendation of the Parking and Alternative Transportation Group. We’d also note that Eaton Street no longer appears in red and that may be due to the fact that the City installed traffic calming devices at all the intersections.

So, the improved score, going from 59 to 68 over the last four years, accurately reflects the now slower speeds on the ground downtown and that’s a good thing. It also reflects better, more accurate data, one of the six principles of SPRINT. So good on Ryan and his team for correcting the data.

The City’s Multi-Modal Coordinator Says

When we talked to the City’s Multi-Modal Coordinator Ryan Stachurski about this year’s score and ranking here’s what he told us:

“Although a 2-point increase to “68” doesn’t sound very good, Key West has been identified as having the best bicycle network in the State of Florida. In addition, Key West has shown some of the most improvement in the U.S. (8th from 2020-2024). This improvement is the result of improved bicycle routes, such as along United St, as well map data used to calculate our network score. The goal, however, is to ensure that everybody in Key West can easily travel by bicycle regardless of their age or ability. Ongoing construction projects, such as the South St Improvements, and the Staples Bridge projects will improve our score and harden it. Our worst scoring metric, “Core Services” which includes access to places that serve basic needs like hospitals, is a recognized opportunity identified within our Bicycle & Pedestrian Master Plan. Support for improved bicycle access to facilities on Stock Island would make a big impact on our score, as well as convenience for residents who would like to pedal to/from our transit hub. With continued support from our community, I’m confident our score will continue to rise!”

What More Do We Need to Do to Improve Key West’s Score and Ranking?

We’ve gotten the low hanging fruit or points out of our natural advantages of being small, flat, great weather and good bones (compact street grid). To significantly improve our score, Key West needs to look to the data, as visualized in the Stress Map, which makes it clear what facilities need to be made safer. Just follow the red streets. One can also look to the recommendations in this article here: Two Bike Crashes This Week Are Two Too Many. Here’s 10 Things to Make Bicycling Safer, November 12, 2022, or look at this quick list:

There’s obviously lots of ideas on how to make biking safer and easier. What are we forgetting in this list and article above? As Tom Theisen, the “Bike Man” has pointed out in the past, in order to go beyond simply replacing the facilities we have now and put in new/additional infrastructure like protected bike lanes, separated paths or even just to connect up all the disjointed regular bike lanes, we are going to need to occasionally take some car parking out and that’s going to take some political will and spending dollars that we have heretofore not witnessed as is amply demonstrated by the County refusing to allow the City to finish the Southard Street bike lane in the 300 block because they’d rather have private parking on the street for 10 employees.

Key West’s Bicycling Future

Key West’s score and ranking in the PeopleforBikes City Rating are great. And we’re cheered on by the fact that our City’s Multi-Modal Coordinator Ryan Stachurski gets it and has been steadily knocking out some excellent projects. But rather than pat ourselves on the back for a job well done, especially when much of that score is because of our natural advantages or the easy stuff, we should use this news as a catalyst to spur us on to even higher heights. Imagine Key West being mentioned as one of the greatest bike cities, not just on the continent, but the world. With a little bit of elbow grease and money, it is indeed possible.

Doing this will make life better for our own citizens as we lessen our traffic and downtown parking congestion, clean our air, make ourselves happier and make our Mom-and-Pop shops more prosperous. We can also bring down the cost of living for our beleaguered workforce by allowing more of them to go car-free. When we make it safer and easier to bike, we all win!

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Chris Hamilton is founder of the local advocacy group Friends of Car-Free Key West & Duval Street/Historic Downtown. Subscribe to the blog. Follow on Facebook and Twitter. A native of the District of Columbia, where for a couple decades+ he led nationally renowned efforts promoting transit, bike, walk and smart growth for Arlington County, VA’s DOT. Chris has lived in Key West since 2015. He lives car-free downtown and works and volunteers for a few non-profits. You can find all of KONK Life Streets for People column articles here and here.

2579 cities

68 Score #37 Small City, #44 USA #110 World #1 FL

https://cityratings.peopleforbikes.org/cities/key-west-fl

https://www.peopleforbikes.org/news/2024-best-places-to-bike

https://www.peopleforbikes.org/news/2024-city-ratings-summary-report#

 

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