DC Named 2nd Most Walkable City in America

A new study has named Washington, D.C. the second most walkable city in the United States -- and that's actually a decline from last year.

New York City topped the rankings this year, mainly because of a change in the algorithm to factor in multi-family rentals, but D.C. still posted strong scores in the annual report from the George Washington University School of Business and Smart Growth America that examines the 30 largest metropolitan areas in the nation.

The rankings were based on the number of "walkable urban places," or WalkUPs. WalkUPs are basically areas with lots of office and retail space, as well as a strong "walk score," meaning how necessary having car is to getting around the area.

And one of the reasons for D.C.'s high score is because of Dupont Circle and Columbia Heights. In defining the eight categories of WalkUPs in its report, the report indicated that Dupont was a prime example of the
2nd category, "Downtown Adjacent," and Columbia Heights was a good example of the 3rd category, "Urban Commercial."

D.C. has a lot of people who walk to work: 12.1 percent, to be exact, behind only Boston.

You can view the full report here (PDF).

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