Bikes at Work has an interesting database that uses census numbers to show how many people walk to their jobs in cities, towns and villages across the US. A quick search for the highest walk-to-work locations for towns with over 1000 people yields the following results:
Location
POP
% Walk to work
Naval Academy, Maryland
4264
82.99%
Houghton, New York
1730
67.84%
Alfred village, New York
3926
60.98%
West Point, New York
7138
60.25%
Air Force Academy, Colorado
7536
59.63%
Parris Island, South Carolina
4841
58.45%
Lackland AFB CDP, Texas
7132
58.09%
New Square village, New York
4707
57.28%
Hamilton village, New York
3510
55.56%
Avalon city, California
3181
52.79
Almost all of these are centered around an institution, like a university or military academy, where many are housed very close to their classes or jobs. The concentration of people and buildings reduces the amount of space that could be used for roads and parking. Raising the threshold to at least 20,000 residents:
Location
POP
% Walk to work
Ithaca city, New York
29006
43.33%
Athens city, Ohio
21192
42.39%
State College, Pennsylvania
38420
41.8%
North Chicago, Illinois
36001
29.06%
Oxford city, Ohio
22087
28.86%
Fort Bragg, North Carolina
29246
26.13%
Cambridge, Massachusetts
101355
25.76%
Fort Hood, Texas
33595
23.87%
College Park, Maryland
24590
23.28%
Pullman city, Washington
24740
22.53%
Again, with few exceptions, we find the pattern of high walking rates and major institutions of higher learning, military bases and areas of mixed use development. Now, setting the bar at over 250,000 residents:
Location
POP
% Walk to work
Boston, Massachusetts
589141
13.36%
Washington, DC
572059
12.27%
New York City, New York
8008278
10.72%
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
334563
10.02%
San Francisco, California
776733
9.82%
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
1517550
9.22%
Newark, New Jersey
273546
8.03%
Seattle, Washington
563375
7.72%
Baltimore, Maryland
651154
7.28%
Minneapolis, Minnesota
382452
6.85%
While all of these cities have colleges and universities and other major institutions, they are part of a very large mix and cannot alone account for why these cities are on the list. Even controlling for population density does not account for this distribution. These are cities that grew to sizable populations before the automobile, which may explain why they are on this list instead of Los Angeles, Phoenix, Atlanta, Houston and Dallas. Surprising in their absence, meanwhile, are Chicago and Portland. They aren't that far off, but while both cities receive a lot of credit for their green initiatives they don't seem to encourage walking to work as much as the cities above.
An even better measure of walkability than the percentage that walk to work would be the number that walk to the grocery store or pharmacy. Walkscore as a defining metric for such an assessment has its flaws, but is generally useful. Looking at both the Bikes at Work census analysis and Walkscore, it would seem that there are two major factors that influence the walkability of a city or town: institutional presence and pre-auto urban design.
The key to both appears to be co-location of housing with the various destinations that people need and desire. But there is a choice here that seems worth considering in greater depth. If we want to create a post-carbon society, creating more walkable communities seems like a major priority. But what kind of walking towns do we want?
Lifelong New York City resident, except for a year in Copenhagen during college. Both experiences have taught me a lot about good (and bad) urban design. I grew up in Staten Island and also lived in Astoria Queens for 5 years. Now I live in Manhattan where I founded Upper Green Side (www.uppergreenside.org), a local environmental group on the Upper East & West Sides of Manhattan.
Call it Amazon crime: The mammoth online retailer is selling illegal batteries and mopeds to city residents, despite such devices being forbidden from city streets.