Unfortunately, Americans seem to walk less and less with every passing decade. The rampant car culture in the United States has produced a society that spends an enormous amount of its collective time sitting in traffic, instead of walking.
But in all fairness, America is such a large country, that cities tend to be spread out in ways that require some sort of transportation to commute. And although many of the biggest cities have well-used public transportation, such as buses, streetcars, subways and trains, most small to medium-size urban areas in the United States score pretty poorly when it comes to public transport.
All of these factors combine to create a society that is held hostage to the automobile. In many parts of the country an individual is effectively “disabled” if they lack a car to get around. But more and more, there is a movement toward reorganizing lifestyles in America, and to encourage walking again.
With this in mind, the Brookings institute recently studied the 30 largest American cities, and rated them over several factors that contribute to “walkability.” The results of the study were surprising in some instances. For example, the Brookings study rated Washington, DC as the best city to walk in the United States, a result which surprised many city dwellers around the country.
All 30 of the cities were ranked by population, access to public transport, and walkable urban space, among other criteria. Washington, DC scored high on all of these measures, based on the city’s many parks, memorials and closed walking streets.
Number two on the list, Boston, Massachusetts, was no surprise at all. Boston’s easily accessible subway system, buses and ferries make it one of the easiest cities in North America to access on foot. Additionally, Boston’s many parks, like the beautiful Boston Commons and Public Gardens are heavily used by city dwellers, and the town caters to pedestrians with wide sidewalks and plentiful pedestrian foot bridges and overpasses.
Surprisingly, Seattle, Washington scored fairly high on the survey, ranking as the sixth best city for walking. Interestingly, Seattle is the only city to score high on the list that does not have a city-wide rail transport system.
Other cities to make the top 10 included San Francisco (no surprises there), Denver, and Portland, Oregon, all of which have solid public transportation and plentiful public parks and walking thoroughfares.
Overall, the study concluded that American cities still have a long way to go as far as walkability is concerned. For example, only a handful of American cities can compete in any meaningful way with even average European cities when it comes to walkability.
But at least progress appears to be on the way: even poorly-rated walking cities, such as Atlanta, have instigated pro walking campaigns and are beefing up their public rail systems to encourage less driving, and more “hoofing it.”
