Portlandia
The Rose City, Portland, Oregon, has consistently achieved high ratings as a bicycle friendly city. Recently, Adventure Cycling rated Massachusetts higher than Oregon. Having ridden in both states, all I can say is "them ol' boys" over at AC need to spend more quality time with Boston drivers before reaching such a conclusion. Before getting there, Portland (for me) was enlightened residents cruising blissfully around in a utopian bubble of bike lanes and coffee shops. The truth is that Portland is a lot like most cities... a busy place filled with people trying to make a living. However, it can be said that a significant number of them do bicycle and are a bit more considerate than are drivers in most other cities. If you talk to a Republican, riots are daily occurrences and the city of fruits, nuts, and flakes is still on fire. I saw no evidence to support either of those characterizations. Pedestrian and bicycle only street in downtown Portland. Outward...