Bike Carmel Events

Bike Carmel Map

League of American Bicyclists

Carmel is recognized as a Silver Level Bicycle Friendly City by the League of American Bicyclists.

In addition to the Monon Greenway, many of Carmel’s streets offer bike paths and the City has worked hard to incorporate trails and paths in many of the new developments.

People for Bikes

For the last four years, the organization People for Bikes (PfB’s) has been rating cities around the world for their bike friendliness, using data driven metrics. In those four years, the City of Carmel has always ranked relatively high and, as more cities are included, and our bicycle network of sidepaths, trails and other bicycle amenities continue to increase, we move closer to the world’s top-ranking cities.

In 2022, Carmel, a midsize city (50k to 300k) per PfB’s rating system, had an overall City Rating of 55, which did not change from 2021, but due to a supportive mayor, hard work by City staff, engaged residents and more cities around the globe being included in the program, our ranking against other cities positively changed. What makes up our City Rating? See People for Bikes “How City Ratings Works” website for a detailed description. Now back to how we fared against other cities around the globe. In 2021, Carmel was ranked 14th out of 342 midsize cities (96th percentile) and in 2022, our ranking moved up to 12th of 455 cities (97th percentile). When looking at all cities included in the program, in 2021, Carmel was 52 nd out of 767 cities (96th percentile) but in 2022, we moved up to 37th out of 1,105 cities (97th percentile). We are number one, by 27 points, in comparison to other Indiana cities and 11th in the Midwest.

The City Rating is based on a Network Score (80%) and a Community Score (20%) which are on 100-point scales:

Link to PfB’s Network Map

Link to the Community Analysis Graph

How did we do versus last year and why? In the categories that make up the Network Score we lost two points in Essential Services and one point in Recreation. These points losses can be attributed to annexing areas to the City that lacked much bicycle infrastructure and taking on more land mass which dilutes the saturation of our ever increasing network. What really helped us from slipping in the rankings was the significant engagement by our residents when responding to the Community Survey. Our Ridership score increased 8 points and our Safety score increased by 3 points! Both of those increases are substantial improvements. Now that you know how well your city fared, wouldn’t you like to know how to make it better?

Here are some ideas from People for Bikes.

Monon Greenway

The Monon Greenway runs from 96th Street to Westfield, IN. Formerly the Monon Railroad, this popular trail serves walkers, joggers, runners, bicyclists, rollerbladers and nature enthusiasts. Carmel maintains the 5.2 mile portion that resides within its borders. The Monon Greenway is a “rails to trails” project.

Free parking, restrooms and water are available at the trailheads located at 1430 East 96th Street and 1201 Rohrer Road.
Free parking is also available at One Civic Square and the Monon Depot lot.
Please visit CarmelClayParks.com for more information about the Monon Greenway

Carmel Access Bikeway (CAB)

In 2008, the City unveiled the Carmel Access Bikeways, a network of bike routes and loops to be implemented on the City’s existing local streets and multiuse paths. With commuters, recreational riders and families in mind, this system has been designed to identify existing streets and multiuse paths which will best serve to move cyclists around Carmel

The Carmel Access Bikeway includes eight cross-city bike routes and five bike loops. The bike routes consist of two east-west bound routes and six north-south routes. The routes are intended for longer trips and will provide access to various destinations throughout Carmel as well as links to neighboring communities. The bike loops will guide their users to the same point at which they started, passing some of Carmel’s best amenities along the way. Each loop, geared toward casual riders, will offer its own unique riding experience to cyclists by highlighting different areas within Carmel.

To make a donation to Bike Carmel,

Please send a check to the City of Carmel,
ATTN - Community Relations & Economic Development, One Civic Square, Carmel, IN 46032.
Checks should be made out to the City of Carmel and include “Bike Carmel” on the memo line.