Fryeburg is one of the best places in Maine to bicycle, according to PeopleForBikes report.

PeopleForBikes is North America’s leading cycling advocacy group. PeopleForBikes works on the local and national level to lobby for meaningful change in bike infrastructure and safer, better rides for every rider.

The PFB comprehensive assessment based on the quality of bike networks had Gardiner, Fryeburg, Patten, Farmington and Buckfield in the Top 5. Fryeburg’s ranking on a national level was 274.

“We know Maine is an incredible place to enjoy by bike, whether that’s for recreation or transportation,” said Jean Sideris, the Bicycle Coalition of Maine (BCM) executive director. “But, we also know there is a lot of work to do to improve bicycle infrastructure and improve safety for people biking in Maine.”

Sideris added, “The BCM is glad to see PeopleForBikes include small cities (less than 50,000 population) in their rankings for Maine. Several rural cities made the top of the list, including cities in the northern and western parts of the state. This demonstrates that good bicycle infrastructure can be done in communities of any size anywhere in Maine.”

PeopleForBikes’ City Ratings is an annual, data-driven program to identify, evaluate, and compare the best cities and towns for bicycling. Each city receives a City Ratings score on a scale of 0 to 100. Based on data from PeopleForBikes’ Bicycle Network Analysis, 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.

Among the Maine top 10, some commonalities in their scoring emerged. Nearly all scored well in both Access to parts of the city where residents live and Access to jobs and schools. Gardiner, Fryeburg, and Patten all scored highest in Access to places that serve basic needs like hospitals and grocery stores. Portland, Bangor, Lewiston, and York Harbor scored highest in Access to recreational amenities like parks and trails. Except for Portland, Lewiston, and Bangor, all of the top 10 scored 0 for Access to major transit hubs. 

PeopleForBikes sees a score of 50 as a significant threshold to becoming a great place to bike, with investments in bike infrastructure creating more opportunities for people to ride and fostering a groundswell of local support for better biking. Unfortunately, no cities in Maine met that threshold, but the top five were within nine points. Of the cities that were included in the 2023 rankings, 10 received higher scores this year and 3 received lower scores. See sidebar.

The BCM has worked with communities all across the state to support improved bicycle infrastructure, including advocating for bike lanes, multi-use paths and trails, and bicycle safety education projects. BCM helped install traffic calming projects in Bangor, Portland, and Lewiston. The Community Spokes network of local advocates are active in nearly every town on this list, and it is the collective of local advocates and BCM’s statewide efforts that will help bring about changes in bike/pedestrian infrastructure to help improve these scores in future PeopeForBikes analyses.

The Bicycle Coalition of Maine is the statewide voice of cyclists and pedestrians. Since 1992, the BCM has led the effort to make Maine better for bicycling and walking by protecting the rights and safety of cyclists and pedestrians through education, advocacy, legislation, and encouragement. BCM supports biking and walking for health, transportation, and recreation. For more information, visit www.bikemaine.org.

2024 Maine City Rankings, 0-100

Rank & Score & 2023 Score

(n/a — not scored in 2023)

1. Gardiner 44 (n/a)

2. Fryeburg 44 (42)

3. Patten 44 (n/a)

4. Farmington 41 (n/a)

5. Buckfield 39 (43)

6. Portland 39 (29)

7. Lewiston 38 (37)

8. Bangor 33 (32)

9. York Harbor 32 (n/a)

10. Cornish 30 (29)

11. Camden 29 (n/a)

12. Presque Isle 29 (25)

13. Gorham 27 (n/a)

14. Orono 27 (30)

15. Biddeford 27 (25)

16. Old Orchard 27 (n/a)

17. Scarborough 26 (24)

18. Augusta 23 (25)

19. Kittery 23 (22)

20. Saco 19 (n/a)

21. Kennebunk 18 (n/a)

22. Auburn 12 (11)

Read the full report here https://cityratings.peopleforbikes.org/