Nipping about on two wheels is quicker than walking, greener than driving, and more economical than using public transport, but not every city is created equal when it comes to cycling.
Several factors contribute to making a city good for cyclists. Copenhagenize, a company that advocates for and consults on bike-friendly urban planning, explains that these exist in three overarching pillars, which culminate in an ecosystem of cycling. They are safe and connected infrastructure (cycle lanes, bike parking areas, traffic management), usage and reach (bike share systems, women’s share of bicycle trips), and policy and support (urban planning, political commitment, and what they call the image of the bicycle).
The results from their 2025 research are based on a scoring of quantitative data, policy documents and evidence of recent action regarding cycling, and European cities overwhelmed the top 30 ranking, claiming a staggering 27 spots on their annual index.
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Oh, and the first of these wasn’t actually Copenhagen (which claimed second place) – it was Utrecht. Scoring 71.1 overall, the Dutch city did best in the ‘policy and support pillar’ and ranked particularly well for the security of bike parking.
Three Canadian cities – Montréal in fifteenth, Québec in twenty-ninth and Vancouver in thirtieth – were the only non-European entries in the top 30.
According to the Copenhagenize Index, French cities, namely Bordeaux, Nantes and Paris, provide some of the ‘calmest and most comfortable street environments’ for walking and cycling thanks to their generalised speed limits. The study also revealed that two-thirds of the top 30 cities report that at least 45 percent of their cyclists are women, which reflects how safe cycling is perceived to be.
These are the 30 most cycling-friendly cities in the world
- Utrecht
- Copenhagen
- Ghent
- Amsterdam
- Paris
- Helsinki
- Münster
- Antwerp
- Bordeaux
- Nantes
- Bonn
- The Hague
- Strasbourg
- Lyon
- Montréal
- Malmö
- Munich
- Oslo
- Vienna
- Bern
- Graz
- Zurich
- Rotterdam
- Ljubljana
- Bologna
- Stockholm
- Vitoria-Gasteiz
- Wroclaw
- Québec
- Vancouver
Read the report in more detail, and check out Time Out’s roundup of the most beautiful cycling trails in the world.
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