Manchester leads Greater Manchester’s cycling rankings with a score of 65, while the region overall ties for last place nationally with just 50 points out of 100, according to new data released this week by bicycle advocacy group PeopleforBikes.

The annual City Ratings, which measure the quality and connectivity of bike networks including protected lanes, paths, speed limits and safe crossings, show Manchester climbing one point from last year to rank 41st nationally. Only Wigan, Salford and Trafford joined Manchester in scoring above 50, with 58, 55 and 52 points respectively, while Stockport managed 49.

The remaining five boroughs landed in the bottom 20 nationwide, with Bury scoring just 40 points to become the second-worst place in the UK out of 107 locations analyzed. Oldham followed with 44 points, while Rochdale, Tameside and Bolton each scored 45. Bolton showed the most improvement by gaining two points, while Oldham and Tameside each dropped one point.

Harry Gray of Walk Ride Greater Manchester criticized the regional performance: “We welcome Manchester’s progress in 2025, but stagnation across the other boroughs shows Greater Manchester isn’t doing enough to build the Active Bee Network. In some areas, political will is lacking - councils do not even have dedicated active travel officers; In others like Manchester and Trafford, political ambition exists, but isn’t being matched by funding from Andy Burnham or central government. We call for a significant share of this year’s devolution funding to be allocated to Active Travel.”

The data reveals the UK continues to trail Europe in cycling infrastructure, with only Cambridge and Hackney representing the country in the European top 20, despite Manchester being named European Capital of Cycling last year.

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