SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Walk Score® (www.walkscore.com), a Redfin company, today released its 2015 ranking of the most walkable U.S. cities with populations over 300,000. New York, the nation’s most walkable city, has increased its lead over No. 2 San Francisco. The two cities essentially tied for first place in 2011.
Walk Score Ranking of Large U.S. Cities
| Rank | City | Walk Score | ||
| 1 | New York | 87.6 | ||
| 2 | San Francisco | 83.9 | ||
| 3 | Boston | 79.5 | ||
| 4 | Philadelphia | 76.5 | ||
| 5 | Miami | 75.6 | ||
| 6 | Chicago | 74.8 | ||
| 7 | Washington D.C. | 74.1 | ||
| 8 | Seattle | 70.8 | ||
| 9 | Oakland | 68.5 | ||
| 10 | Baltimore | 66.2 |
“New York is clearly leading the way in walkability by reclaiming space from cars for people,” Walk Score co-founder Matt Lerner said. “One look at Times Square shows how New York has become a leader. It’s just one example of a place that went from being a gridlocked road full of cars to a park for pedestrians.”
Other Highlights:
Miami is becoming more walkable, with a Walk Score increase of more than three points since 2011, likely thanks to a surge of commercial development. New home construction has increased population density in some neighborhoods and made it easier for people to live, work and shop in the same part of town.
“People can now walk where they used to have to drive, especially in neighborhoods like Wynwood and the Design District where a lot of new restaurants and shopping and entertainment centers have opened up,” said Aaron Drucker, Miami market manager for Redfin. “Even in traditionally walkable areas, like South Beach, public transportation is improving and becoming a more attractive option as parking rates and traffic are both on the rise.”
Detroit has seen a 2.2-point Walk Score increase since 2011 to 52.2 this year.
“Downtown Detroit has become noticeably more walkable over the past few years thanks to Dan Gilbert’s initiative to move his company, Quicken Loans, and others from the suburbs back to the heart of the city,” said Lauren Buttazzoni, Redfin market manager in Detroit. “Following these companies has come a slew of new restaurants, locally owned shops and small businesses. It’s not just millennials but families and people of all generations who want to live near work and enjoy the action and amenities of city living. As a result, real estate in the city is in great demand, new lofts and condos are being built, and prices — in rents and sales alike — are rising. It has all been a great boon for the motor city.”
New Orleans has changed, too, as the city continues to reinvent itself following Hurricane Katrina. The city is rebuilding with walkability in mind as it develops affordable housing and revitalizes commercial districts, which may have helped the city’s Walk Score increase from 55.6 in 2011 to 56.3 today.
Methodology
To calculate the rankings, Walk Score analyzed over 10 million locations and computed more than 2 billion walking routes for 2,500 U.S. cities. For the second year in a row, the Walk Score ranking uses the Street Smart Walk Score algorithm that incorporates walking routes, depth of choice, pedestrian friendliness, population and neighborhood data. The changes in scores between the 2011 and 2015 rankings reflect changes in methodology (Classic Walk Score vs. Street Smart Walk Score) as well as changes in the cities themselves.
To read the full report, click or paste the following link: https://www.redfin.com/blog/2015/04/walk-score-ranks-the-most-walkable-cities-of-2015.html
About Walk Score
Walk Score makes it easy to find walkable places to live. Walk Score’s website and iPhone app let consumers to shop for apartments and rentals by commute time, access to public transit and proximity to “Gotta Have” amenities like coffee shops, grocery stores, schools, parks, car shares, and more. Visit http://www.walkscore.com/apartments to get started. Walk Score believes that walkable neighborhoods with access to public transit, shorter commutes, and proximity to the people and places you love are the key to a happier, healthier and more sustainable lifestyle. Walk Score delivers more than 10 million scores for apartment and home addresses per day across a network of more than 30,000 real estate sites. Walk Score’s Advisory Board includes urban planning, environmental and technical experts from organizations such as Sightline Institute and The Brookings Institution. According to independent research conducted by CEOs for Cities, one point of Walk Score adds up to $3,000 to home values. Find your neighborhood at http://www.walkscore.com.
About Redfin
Redfin (www.redfin.com) is a customer-first real estate brokerage that represents people buying and selling homes. Founded by technologists, Redfin employs a team of experienced, full-service real estate agents who are advocates, not salespeople, earning customer-satisfaction bonuses, not just commissions. Redfin.com features all the broker-listed homes for sale, as well as for-sale-by-owner properties that don't pay brokers a commission. Redfin also offers online tools, built by its own software engineers, that make the entire process of buying or selling a home easier and more fun. The company serves major markets across the U.S. and has closed nearly $20 billion in home sales. In 2012, Redfin was named one of The DIGITAL 100: World's Most Valuable Private Tech Companies by Business Insider.
Connect with Redfin
Download the Redfin mobile app
