Seattle’s bicycling community notched more than 3.3 million miles in 2025, leading all U.S. cities in the number of people who chose to ride their bike to work.
The data was provided by Strava, a fitness social media app that tracks users’ workouts in real time with GPS data, which the company shares with 4,000 city planners and government agencies to better understand commuting patterns.
Strava provides users with a detailed look at each workout they log in the fitness app, including a person’s total distance, average and maximum speeds during a workout, and elevation gain, among several other statistics.
Seattle paced the rest of the U.S. cities in the ranking with 3,339,306 miles logged, moving full speed ahead of Chicago with 2.5 million miles, and Minneapolis-St. Paul, which had 1.7 million miles, according to The Seattle Times.
U.S. lags behind European countries in global share of bike commutes
Based on data from more than 195 million Strava users across 185 countries, Strava users across the globe logged a total of 550 million miles to work in 2025. Regarding the global share of bike commutes, the U.S. lagged behind other countries in the total number of miles biked to work overall, being left in the dust by Iceland, Belgium, and Norway.
Although the data may be skewed, as it only tracks statistics logged on the Strava app, it could be missing a larger share of riders who use other fitness apps or none at all. Despite this, Seattle Department of Transportation spokesperson Mariam Ali noted that the city will use Strava’s findings to increase its understanding of Seattle’s bike community.
“That said, we don’t use Strava data as an official or primary source, since it represents only a subset of riders,” Ali wrote in an email to The Seattle Times. “We rely on our own counts and other local datasets for planning and reporting.”
The most popular neighborhood for Strava users commuting to in Seattle was South Lake Union, with Denny Triangle landing in second. The Westlake bikeway was also the most popular segment in Seattle.
The data highlighted several popular segments, including the stretch running from underneath I-5 toward Gas Works Park, the Eighth Avenue N.W. approach to the Fremont Bridge, the portion through the University of Washington (UW), and the crossing over the 520 bridge on Lake Washington, according to The Seattle Times.
Westlake bikeway ranks among most popular cycling segments in the U.S.
The Westlake segment also ranked among the most popular cycling routes in the country, which takes a cyclist from the Fremont Bridge toward the Museum of History & Industry at South Lake Union.
The Westlake segment stood between two popular paths in New York City: One along the western edge of Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen, and the Queensboro Bridge connection from Queens to Manhattan.
Ali said the city views the Strava data as a useful tool for guiding decisions about where to expand and improve cycling infrastructure.
“As we approach the 10-year anniversary of the corridor later this year, it’s a great example of how safe, connected infrastructure can support strong ridership and become a key part of Seattle’s bike network,” Ali told The Seattle Times.
This story was originally posted on MyNorthwest.com
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