Indy inhospitable to bikers, survey says

For a city that has prided itself recently on its bicycle trails, a just-released survey hit like a handlebar to the ribs.

Indianapolis, home of the Monon and Cultural trails, was ranked as one of the 10 least bike-friendly cities in the country.

But falser words were never spoken, city officials say.

"This survey perplexes me," said Jen Pittman, a spokeswoman for Mayor Greg Ballard.

"This just doesn't make any sense," said Kevin Whited, executive director of IndyCog, a bicycling group.

"I don't think it is an accurate reflection of the bike infrastructure and the investment we've made in trails here," said Kären Haley, executive director of Indianapolis Cultural Trail Inc.

The survey by betterdoctor.com, a doctor rating service, found Indianapolis ranked 44th out of the nation's 52 largest cities in bikeability.

The ranking measured three factors: number of bike commuters, pedestrian deaths per 10,000 commuters and federal funds dedicated to trails over a four-year period.

Indianapolis ranked poorly in all three areas.

But Jamison Hutchins, the bicycle and pedestrian coordinator for the city, said the survey failed to measure a category that's booming in Indianapolis: recreational bikers.

"All you have to do is go out there to see how it's grown. It's crazy," he said. "I see families riding on the Cultural Trail, people riding alongside their dogs on the Monon Trail. That's not considered when you only count people who ride to work."

Whited agreed.

"About six years ago, I might see two or three other people riding bikes and now I see people everywhere on bikes night and day, at all hours," Whited said.

The study also did not measure how many miles of trails cities have or account for the popularity of their bike-sharing programs.

Indianapolis has 75 miles of trails and 90 miles of bike lanes on city streets. The Indiana Pacers Bikeshare program drew 100,000 rides in its first year, surpassing the first-year totals of a similar program in Denver Colo., a city which was ranked the 12th most bike-friendly in the survey.

The top bicycling city was Portland, Ore., followed by Washington, D.C.; Minneapolis, Minn.; and Oakland, Calif. Cities ranked lower than Indianapolis included Louisville, Ky.; Charlotte, N.C.; and Memphis, Tenn.

The study found only 1,668 people in Indianapolis rode bikes to work, less than 1 percent of all commuters. Because the number of commuters was so low, the bicyclist mortality rate was high, with more than 11 deaths for every (projected) 10,000 commuters.

Indianapolis was also punished because it received no federal transportation dollars for trails between 2009 and 2012. At least not the federal funds that were measured by the survey.

The scoring is somewhat misleading, city officials said, because it doesn't appear to count a $20.5 million Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery, or TIGER grant, that helped build the Cultural Trail. In addition, the Monon Trail was built before 2009 for $1 million a mile with 80 percent paid for with federal funds.

The survey also did not consider local dollars that went to bike lanes and trails.

"Very sad that it doesn't even look at local investment," Pittman said of the study.

Divya Raghavan, a senior analyst at betterdoctor.com, said miles of trails were not measured because the way cities count them varies so widely that it wouldn't be equal. She said a fairer comparison was counting dollars from federal programs that all states have access to. But Raghavan said it did not appear TIGER grants were included in the calculation.

Whited, who used to live in Portland, said he has visited a lot of the cities on the list.

"All have gotten better, but I can tell you some of these cities should not be ahead of us," he said.

Call Star reporter John Tuohy at (317) 444-6418 and follow on Twitter @john_tuohy.