Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Ok, now I've officially lost complete faith in Walkscore. They claim Lynwood has a higher walkscore than Everett and Kirkland? That's absolutely ludiscrous. Lynwood is conpletely auto-oriented while Everett and Kirkland have pedestrian oriented cores.
Well Kirkland's and Everett's most walkable neighborhoods score higher, and Lynnwood has a smaller area, but I was also pretty surprised, I thought it would score similar to Federal Way, they are nearly identical in city layout, but I guess not.
Seattle annihilates LA/Miami in people actually walking to work per capita. It also beats some of the 1-6 list.
It also annilates LA/Miami in people using transit to commute per capita.
And of course it beats most of these cities in biking to work.
I'll just keep saying that.
That's one way to think about it. The other one is to think about it as what metro has the largest contiguous or linked by frequent transit blob of walkable and very walkable areas since there is a certain scale that walkability is set at.
I'm defining "un-walkable" as nothing to walk to, and/or SFH on green lots without any amenities.
I obviously don't know New Orleans as well as you, but I've been to that city enough to know it fairly well. And while the historic and urban areas are beautiful (GD - FQ) they are small in relation to the city, all the newer areas are not walkable at all.
When it comes to Miami there is no comparison, Miami is FAR more walkable overall, though New Orleans has the best urban neighborhood. That's not enough to win this contest.
For example your place has a walking score of 82? The entire city limits of Miami has a walk score of 78.
None of the neighborhoods I described have unwalkable streets without amenities. Now, you won't be able to do everything by foot but entertainment is something that you most certainly would be able to do.
The historic areas stretch much farther than the Garden District, although you're probably talking about the Lower Garden District. The new areas like New Orleans East and Lakeview? There are no "new" areas in New Orleans.
Both of those streetviews are in bad neighborhoods and they always lack amenities usually touted on City-Data (coffee shops, bars, gastropubs, bike shops, etc). Same with Little Haiti and Liberty Square: https://goo.gl/maps/rHJL4LkT9gs https://goo.gl/maps/5pCibs7LY1P2
But still all 4 of these neighborhoods lack amenities more then they lack walkable infrastructure.
Most of uptown is walkable as in close to retail corridors or employment centers, that's everything from I-10 south til you hit Metairie, and the south (riverside) of Claiborne.
Walkscore is hit or miss and I don't like to rely on it. From my friends apartment on W 19th in Chicago they gave it a score of 90, although it's perfectly walkable structurally, there are few amenities compared to my address in New Orleans. 18th St was the main corridor and it's mostly places like dry cleaners, tax office, butcher, bodegas, etc. There is nothing like Magazine St or St. Charles in walking distance although it's rated higher.
I don't know if you're familiar with Houston but they gave this neighborhood a 78: https://goo.gl/maps/KyEm33BHsQr
So back to Miami, to compare these cities based on percentage of walkability in the city limits seems as moot as comparing cities based on city population when we all know metro population is the better metric to use majority of the time.
King County WA also annihilates LA County in walking, transit, and bike commutes. They're pretty comparable...KC is nearly half the CSA and LAC is slightly more than half, plus both include distant suburbs and large areas of wilderness.
LA has a lot of walkable suburban nodes. But Seattle does too...hence much of the commute stats. DT Bellevue, Kirkland, Redmond, Renton, Edmonds, and many others are examples.
Bellevue beat the City of LA too per the 2010 census commute numbers at 11.8% transit, 5.2% walk, 0.3% bike. LA was 10.6%, 3.6%, and 1.2%. Redmond was slighly lower than LA on transit and slighly higher on walking.
Why don't you start a thread comparing suburbs then instead of trying to jack a city vs city thread ?
Because Los Angeles, Seattle, and Miami all have thoroughly walkable cores. There is only a marginal difference between them. The real differences happen the next ring out--Renton, Bellevue, Lynnwood, etc. for Seattle. Bal Harbor, Hialeah, Kendall, etc. for Miami. Pasadena, Whittier, Long Beach, etc. for Los Angeles. City limits are essentially obsolete.
True, it's all the city, regardless of how administrative boundaries are drawn.
Here are county stats....these are the 2011-2015 Census ACS...some of my other numbers might have been too, not 2010.
LA is losing badly.
Main counties in Seattle area:
King: 12.1% tranit, 4.7% walk, 1.6% bike.
Pierce: 3.4% transit, 2.3% walk, 0.4% bike.
Snohomish: 5.5% transit, 1.8% walk, 0.4% bike.
Kitsap: 9.1% transit, 4.7% walk, 0.6% bike.
Thurston: 1.9% transit, 2.2% walk, 1.1% bike.
Main counties around LA:
LA: 6.8% transit, 2.8 walk, 0.9% bike.
Orange: 2.5% transit, 2.0% walk, 0.9% bike.
Riverside: 1.4% transit, 1.4% walk, 0.4% bike.
San Bernadino: 1.7% transite, 1.8% walk, 0.4% bike.
Ventura: 1.3% transit, 1.9% walk, 0.7% bike.
Seattle has more cars per household, I doubt they're for decoration. More cars probably means large garages, which means more of Seattle is suburban.
The walkability score of Seattle is 73, lower than Miami's 78, and lower still then a combined Miami + Miami Beach + Hialeah for a walk score of 75 (and a population of 15% more than Seattle).
Seattle is also less dense than Miami both in city limits and metropolitan area.
I will give you that Seattle has better PT than Miami, though that's not very hard.
Because Los Angeles, Seattle, and Miami all have thoroughly walkable cores. There is only a marginal difference between them. The real differences happen the next ring out--Renton, Bellevue, Lynnwood, etc. for Seattle. Bal Harbor, Hialeah, Kendall, etc. for Miami. Pasadena, Whittier, Long Beach, etc. for Los Angeles. City limits are essentially obsolete.
Well we spent about 10 pages comparing the cores of Seattle and Miami. I think a lot of people would disagree with you that "there is only a marginal difference between them".
I also fail to see what suburbs have to do with this thread (except to the extent that the size of the metro population can help enhance the vibrancy of the urban core). Seems like an attempt to divert the subject into an irrelevant direction that will shine more positive light on LA (even though LA was excluded from this thread).
I mean 80-90% of New York's MSA consists of quiet, sleepy suburbs. The five boroughs take up less than 10% of the NYC urban area. And LA's suburbs are, for the most part, more dense, urban and busy than NY's. Does that mean that LA is a more walkable and vibrant city than NY in the sense meant by the OP?
Last edited by Fitzrovian; 03-11-2017 at 01:24 PM..
Then why do so few people commute by foot, transit, or bike in Miami compared to Seattle?
Also, new apartments in Seattle tend to have way fewer parking spaces than units. The opposite is true in Miami. Why is that? (If you want evidence for Seattle I'll post as many links as you want.)
PS, it's possible to own a car but not use it very often. It's actually common here, often for weekend trips to go hiking, skiing, whatever.
Then why do so few people commute by foot, transit, or bike in Miami compared to Seattle?
Also, new apartments in Seattle tend to have way fewer parking spaces than units. The opposite is true in Miami. Why is that? (If you want evidence for Seattle I'll post as many links as you want.)
Because Seattle has a larger university in their city limits.
And I don't know what you're talking about, most new construction in Miami are high-rises. They have a parking garage inside ofc, but these are 40-50 story buildings.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
