How the Cycos Score works

We pull six years of daily weather(2019–2024) for each city's center from Open-Meteo, and count the days that are actually nice to ride: a daily high between 7 °C and 35 °C with under 5 mm of rain. That count, averaged to a typical year, is the city's rideable days.

climate score = rideable days ÷ 365 × 10

So San Diego (~346 dry, mild days) scores near the top, while cities with freezing winters, scorching summers, or heavy monsoons score lower — automatically and consistently.

We measure the kilometers of dedicated cycleway(bike paths and protected/marked lanes) within 10 km of each city center, straight from OpenStreetMap via the Overpass API. More connected, mapped bike infrastructure → a higher score, on a curve calibrated to the real range across all cities.

infra score = cycleway km → calibrated 0–10 curve

Honest caveat: this rewards quantityof mapped infrastructure (including recreational paths), and OpenStreetMap coverage varies by region. It also doesn't capture road-riding meccas whose appeal is quiet open roads rather than bike lanes — that's what the sport-scene dimension below will measure.

Right now the overall score is the average of Climate and Bike infrastructure. Both are fully data-driven today.

Cycos Score = (climate + infrastructure) ÷ 2

Two more dimensions are in progress, each also tied to real data:

• Commute mode share— the % of people who get around by bike (census & national statistics).
• Sport cycling scene — club density, pro riders based in the city, races hosted, and velodromes — what makes a Girona or a Mallorca world-class for riding.

Until those land, pure sport-cycling destinations may score lower than their reputation — they shine on dimensions we haven't added yet.