11 Most Walk-Friendly U.S. Cities

More Gold Walkable Communities

Hoboken, New Jersey

• As a neighbor to New York City, the City of Hoboken benefits from the services of three regional transit systems and one city agency.  Ninety-nine percent of its population lives within a quarter mile of a bus stop or a half-mile from a rail stop, which is highlighted in the city’s 57 percent transit and 10 percent walking mode share.
• Corner Cars, Hoboken’s citywide car-sharing program, seeks to curb demand for parking rather than increasing supply.  They have a fleet of 42 vehicles, each of which is parked on a corner for maximum visibility.  Ninety percent of Hoboken residents live within a 3–5 minute walk from a car.  Their studies have shown that for each Corner Car, 17 households have given up their car and an additional 20 have delayed or avoided the purchase of a car.
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• Hoboken Summer Streets is a program that closes a large segment of Sinatra Drive (the waterfront boulevard) to motor-vehicle traffic every Sunday from Memorial Day to Labor Day.
• Unveiled in the Fall of 2010, “Surrender Your Permit” incentivizes residents with residential parking permits to turn them in in exchange for a package of rewards valued at $500/month.  Part of the program encourages walking through partnership with a local shoe store that offers pedometers, athletic socks, and discounts on athletic shoes.
• Ninety-nine percent of the city’s arterials are lined with sidewalks on both sides.  Four miles of new sidewalks are planned in the next three years.

Santa Barbara, California

• The city’s Pedestrian Master Plan highlights “paseos” — pedestrian-oriented shopping streets that were created after the removal of parking lanes behind businesses in 1969.  The paseos’ initial success as parking pass-throughs and additional retail frontage has motivated the city to highlight their maintenance and expansion in the plan.  Although one chapter covers the paseos within the plan, the chapter functions as a standalone document focused on the network and complimenting the goals, policies, and strategies of the General Plan and Urban Design Guidelines.
• The Circulation Element of Santa Barbara’s General Plan is acomplete streets document.  The Element lists four goals and three of them highlight this philosophy: Strive to Achieve Equality of Choice Among Modes; Increase the Availability and Use of Transit; and Increase Bicycling as a Transportation Mode.
• Santa Barbara has a model Safe Routes to School Program already implemented with increasing participation from schools.  Currently, the Master Plan has maps of safe routes for all 16 schools in the city limits. They host a Walk to School Day in October, encourage regular walking to school through a friendly competition called the Walk & Roll to School Challenge, produce and disseminate SRTS maps to parents at the beginning of each school year, partner with COAST in teaching how to drive a walking school bus, track walking and biking to school during homeroom time, and perform School Hazard Assessments every three years.  Only six percent of schools do not participate in SRTS programming.
• SantaBarbaraCarFree is a project of the Santa Barbara Air Pollution Control District with support from the City of Santa Barbara, Amtrak California, and other partners.  It encourages car-free travel through discounts and by providing information on walkable destinations like the Farmers Markets, parks, trails, and bus and shuttle services.

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Photo of Santa Barbara pedestrians via La Citta Vita