(Trailforks is owned by Outside Inc., the same company that owns Outside.)
Safe streets and being able to commute to school and work are important, but other factors determine a great bike town, like the number of dirt trails and mountains nearby to ascend. So I also sought data from Trailforks, which catalogs the number of mountain-bike trails within feasible reach of each community, and looked for towns that also have access both to world-class road-cycling routes and lonely gravel roads to explore. (Trailforks is owned by Outside Inc., the same company that owns Outside.)