Bicycling Magazine released their top cities for cycling for 2008. This year, two Bay Area cities were on the list. San Francisco made the “Still Greatest” category and San Jose came in as a “Runner Up”.

San Francisco

All bike infrastructure projects here have been halted since 2006, when two “concerned” groups sued the city for not putting plans through the environmental impact review process. A judge ruled that the review needed to happen, and the city may not get back on track until 2010. But here’s why San Fran rules: The local bike culture has stood strong, and the number of cyclists increased by 15 percent last year alone.

San Jose

With a near-perfect climate, relatively flat landscape, almost 200 miles of bike lanes and paths, nine bike/pedestrian freeway overcrossings, bike-friendly buses and commuter trains, pilot programs for bike-friendly stop lights, detailed bike-route signs and a city employee bike fleet, San Jose has earned a place in the bike-friendly-city arena. “If you put San Jose on the East Coast, people would think it was a mecca of cycling,” says Andy Clarke, executive director of the League of American Bicyclists. “But because it’s on the West Coast, in the shadow of San Francisco and other places, expectations are quite a bit higher.” The city plans to connect more of its bike network–”It’s a work in progress and there are some gaps in it,” admits John Brazil, the city’s bike coordinator–but from what we see, that’s San Jose’s only remaining shortcoming.