A ranking of localities by their bicycle-friendliness has Fairfax City near the top in Virginia.
The City of Fairfax came in seventh place in Virginia in PeopleForBikes’ 2025 ranking of cities, which were released in mid-June. Fairfax came in 22nd across the south as a whole, and 286th in the U.S.
To evaluate the “quality and connectedness” of the bicycle networks in different localities, the annual ranking factors in a variety of categories. Fairfax City ranked highest for access to retail with a score of 76, but it scored 0 for transit — meaning bicycle access to major transit hubs is very limited.
While Fairfax County as a whole wasn’t considered, several parts of the county made the Virginia rankings, which included 55 different localities.
- Vienna: 16th place in the state
- Reston: 28th place in the state
- Burke: 31st place in the state
- Herndon: 40th place in the state
- McLean: 51st in the state
Neighboring Arlington scored 3rd place and Falls Church was in 8th place.
The highest-rated Virginia locality, Cape Charles, came in at only no. 51 nationally. According to Virginia Mercury, some Richmond officials took issue with the capital city’s relatively low ranking (no. 37 in the state), questioning the methodology used for assessing cyclist stress levels.
This is the eighth year that PeopleForBikes has released the city ratings, which considered nearly 3,000 cities across the U.S. and the world, the bicycling advocacy coalition said in a press release written by infrastructure analytics and research manager Grace Stonecipher.
This year, 234 U.S. cities secured a rating of 50 or higher, up from 33 cities in 2019, suggesting that bicycle safety and infrastructure has improved, the release said. The coalition advocates for safe speeds, protected bike lanes, reallocated street space, protected intersections, and extensive bicycle networks as measures that can turn high-stress streets into low-stress streets.
