The 20 most walkable cities in the US
New York
Boston
Washington, D.C.
Seattle
Portland
San Francisco
Chicago
Los Angeles
Pittsburgh
Philadelphia
Minneapolis-St. Paul
Miami
Charlotte
Austin
Atlanta
Denver
Cleveland
Houston
Columbus
Baltimore
“Your typical traveler is going to be very different than local residents, they're far more likely to go somewhere and not have a car,” says Rodriguez, “When you look at where Americans go abroad, they’re often going to cities that are very walkable, enjoying the life there.”
Years ago, my parents flew down to visit. My wife and I were both working. My folks got bored sitting around the house and decided to go for a walk. They were walking back home on 1960. A county constable stopped and asked if they were ok. He wasn’t used to seeing older people out walking.
Much of Los Angeles is walkable but one cannot walk across Los Angeles. Walkability here is probably defined as being able to achieve a high percentage of daily tasks and desires within walking distance and most of LA meets that metric.
Sure, but that's what almost all cities are. There all whole swaths of the outer Burroughs in NYC that aren't terribly walkable either. LA -- most specifically the basin -- is generally walkable.
What part of “the basin?” Not by the gymnastics school or Trader Joe’s in Culver City. Not to get to Simply Wholesome or the barber shops on Slauson. Please don’t get me started on the Forum or Nokia Live.
To its credit, LA’s walkable neighborhoods are connected by decent transit options. From my experience it’s an insanely walkable city so long as you factor in the subway
doesn't walkable city sort of have to mean walkable neighborhoods because a neighborhood is a fundamental unit of human bipedal experience or something
I commute on foot and I could easily live my life that way, there's more than a half-dozen supermarkets within a few miles.
But that's strictly local; if I go one town over on foot (and I have done) I find major roads that have no sidewalks; minor roads also might not, and sometimes dead end.
I’m wondering if we’re not big enough to qualify for inclusion. But given that this article is directed toward travelers, our relatively small size should not have kept us off. Something like 1/3 to 1/2 of people in Orleans Parish at any given time are tourists.
I grew up there, but don’t live there anymore. I’ve gone back at least three times w/o a car and was fine. Just stayed downtown/FQ or a block or two off St. Charles. Didn’t have a need to go to Metairie, so it was great.
TBF, if you are one of the few people who live smack dab in the middle of downtown Cleveland you can easily walk to all of the sports arenas, the casino, 4th St restaurants, Warehouse District clubs, Playhouse Square, and one pretty decent grocery store. Anywhere else, though, you’re SOL.
yeah that's just it, "walkable" needs to reflect reality for most people. when I lived there, there was one bus route that ran from my neighborhood to downtown, it was 1x/hr and often missing, and there was NOTHING in walking distance but a CVS. everything I needed was a car ride away.
Same here. (Except I did have a somewhat serviceable grocery store nearby) And then they cut the route of the ONE bus downtown so it only went half way to downtown before I had to transfer. Ridiculous. But, hey, downtown is getting nicer for the tourists.
Also, Ann Arbor, MI. Basically, any small city with a large university is going to score high on walkability (public transportation, cultural attractions you can actually walk to, etc)
Savannah, GA represent!! I just walked around the corner to my neighborhood Kroger, probably a shorter distance than most people walk in the average WalMart parking lot.
Many people think Cambridge/Somerville/any city in the Boston area is a neighborhood of Boston. I think this list has a lack of geographical awareness.
Was my first thought. I lived there for 10 years. Austin is the opposite of a walkable city. Even if you live downtown it's not entirely walkable. The train and busses suck.
Exactly, there are micro situations where someone could theoretically walk most places if you worked from home, but that’s in every American city of any size. It doesn’t scale without full coverage of public transport.
Baltimore is only walkable if you're in the wealthy white neighborhoods or downtown (excluding Locust Point, due to its historic status as a redlined neighborhood). Otherwise, reliable public transit is basically nil, and many neighborhoods are food deserts.
