Davis features five of the nation’s top 25 most “bikeable” neighborhoods, according to data published in The Atlantic Cities last month.

Old North Davis, Old East Davis and the downtown core all scored a perfect 100 on the rating scale used by a private service called Walk Score to determine the bikeability of a given neighborhood.

The three neighborhoods to rack up perfect scores in town shared first-place honors with the Parkside Resident neighborhood in Madison, Wis.; Goss Grove in Boulder, Colo.; and South Eugene High School in Eugene, Ore.

Davis’ University Avenue and Interland/University Research Park Drive neighborhoods scored 99.8 and 99.7, respectively, earning eighth place and 14th place on the list.

The rankings were determined by Walk Score’s Bike Score rating system, which factors in bike lanes, hills, destinations, road connectivity and bike community mode share when computing a score. Walk Score is a privately run online service that determines how walkable residences are to nearby amenities.

“It’s some really nice national recognition for Davis that continues to show our place in the national scheme of things,” said Dave Kemp, the city’s active transportation coordinator.

“We have the highest (bicycling) mode share in the nation, 40 times the national average, so it doesn’t surprise us that we would rank high. … It mirrors what we know about Davis.”

Neighborhoods to notch a Bike Score of 90 or higher were named a “Biker’s Paradise,” and according to the data, 17 neighborhoods in Davis scored high enough to qualify for that rating.

The other Bike Score categories included Very Bikeable (70-89), Bikeable (50-69) and Somewhat Bikeable (0-49). More than 7,000 neighborhoods across the United States were included in the data set.

Aside from Davis, Sacramento, Eugene and Madison were the only other cities to feature multiple neighborhoods in the top 25.

Madison and Cambridge, Mass. were the only two cities with neighborhoods in the top 25 not located in the Western part of the country. The article also notes that many of the top neighborhoods are in college towns.

For the full list of the top 25 neighborhoods, visit http://www.theatlanticcities.com/neighborhoods/2013/05/americas-most-bikeable-neighborhoods/5587.

— Reach Tom Sakash at [email protected] or 530-747-8057. Follow him on Twitter at @TomSakash

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