There’s a good reason why the League of American Bicyclists awarded Minneapolis, Minnesota, with the Gold Level Bicycle Friendly Community Award. This city proves that biking isn’t just for fun, but an alternative to commuting to work while cutting down on traffic congestion and parking woes.

Midtown Greenway serves as a 9-kilometer east-west city-crossing path that’s free of traffic and makes cross-town trips fast and easy. The USA’s first bicycle freeway Cedar Lake Trail runs roughly 9 kilometers from downtown Minneapolis and has three lanes of traffic: two one-ways for cyclists and a lane for pedestrians. A place where bike couriers still thrive and subzero temperatures don’t deter hardcore cyclists surely deserves accolades.