There are a slew of ‘most walkable city’ rankings, but the one by Walk Score (profiled previously) is as scientific and practical as they get. Walk Score is a web-based service that scores the walkability of an address on a scale of 1 to 100 based on access to amenities, groceries, transportation, etc., so it wasn’t difficult for them to map out every single address and display it graphically (the more green, the more walkable, red being the least).
The Walk Score rankings:
1. San Francisco, CA
2. New York, NY - Maps all five boroughs, otherwise Manhattan would easily be #1.
3. Boston, MA
4. Chicago, IL
5. Philadelphia, PA
6. Seattle, WA
7. Washington DC
8. Long Beach, CA
9. Los Angeles, CA - I know, but they’re looking at central L.A., not greater L.A. The same for SF.
10. Portland, OR
Check out the walkability ‘heat maps’ for all of them here.
