Montgomery: The "Don't Bother" Bike City?

 

My brother, Queens, circa 1960

From a website ranking cities by how bike-rider friendly they are.

Not a single Southern City to be found on the list.

"Uneasy Riders in the South

It’s no surprise that Southern cities tend to find themselves at the bottom of our ranking. Biking requires a lot of outdoor time, which isn’t as easy in a place like Montgomery, Alabama, with an average of 85 very hot days in a year and a whopping 53 inches of annual rain. Warm and wet don’t mix well with cycling. 

It also makes sense that many of these same Southern cities — such as Jackson, Mississippi, or Shreveport, Louisiana — have few bike trails and bike commuters. Why invest in the infrastructure if the weather’s not good for biking? But don’t let that stop you. If you really love cycling enough to hit that wet pavement when the air is thick as soup, ride on."