I live in Davis CA (briefly) mentioned in the article and grew up in Pittsburgh PA. Pittsburgh PA placed in the top 10 worst cities to bike in, several times. The main problem is that the neighborhood streets don't go anywhere, they just feed you onto busy streets with speed limits of 35 mph and up, with minimal shoulders.<p>So even for a 7.5 mile commute you end on up fairly dangerous roads for bikes. On the bridges you have to choose between really dangerous and legal (no shoulder at all, with a big railing between you and sidewalk), and illegally using the sidewalk.<p>Things like a local school, grocery store, drug store, and even a pizza joint are often pretty far away. You have to skip several useless neighborhoods on a major thoroughfare to be able to shop.<p>In davis there's a large downtown section that's largely a grid, low speed limits, bike lanes, and reasonable shoulders. The surrounding neighborhoods often have a green belt, and when they don't there's pretty much always a reasonable parallel road to any major through fair. There's much more retail space mixed into the neighborhoods. There are schools, parks, drug stores, and restaurants spread around the city, not just downtown.<p>Pittsburgh does have a grid like downtown, but it's pretty much exclusively a business district, very few people actually live there. It seems fairly post apocalyptic after hours with no cars and no foot traffic, just the rats scurrying around.<p>Seems like all the best cities have mixed use zoning, large grids, and highly connected streets. This allows for biking, walking, and of course better public transportation while minimizing high speed vehicles mixing it up with bikes and pedestrians.