New York beats San Francisco
Editor's note: This article is a sidebar to the "Walk Score could lead to better-planned transit networks" article.
In 2008, when Walk Score’s first ranking of cities on their walkability came out, San Francisco captured the number one spot. This year New York pushed San Francisco into second place. Below those two cities were, in descending order, Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, Seattle, Washington, Miami, Minneapolis, and Oakland.
When asked how two large, well-established cities could change position in as little as three years, Chief Technology Officer Matt Lerner explained that New York has been improving noticeably. Data from the 2010 census showed New York not only gaining population; it also had more of its inhabitants living in walkable neighborhoods. “Former industrial areas became high-quality mixed-use, with grocery stores and other amenities,” Lerner said. The population also rose in neighborhoods that were already walkable.
To produce a Walk Score for an entire city, first a score is calculated for each block. The blocks’ scores are then population- weighted to generate city-wide results. The findings are available at walkscore.com.
Some cities, such as Washington, DC, which ranked seventh in walkability in both 2008 and 2011, have begun to incorporate Walk Score into their municipal goals. “We want to maintain or improve our ranking,” says Washington Planning Director Harriet Tregoning. “We look at changes to our zoning to bring more retail convenience to our neighborhoods,” she says. “We want to expand transportation choices and increase our population,” which rose by 5.2 percent between 2000 and 2010 — the first increase since 1950.
