Top 20 Cities to Live Without a Car in 2023 (best, places, population)

[MDAllstar]

Top 20 Cities to Live Without a Car in 2023

1. Boston, MA
2. Newark, NJ
3. New York City, NY
4. Washington DC
5. San Francisco, CA
6. Philadelphia, PA
7. Seattle, WA
8. Oakland, CA
9. Madison, WI
10. Pittsburg, PA
11. Portland, OR
12. Chicago, IL
13. Minneapolis, MN
14. Alexandria, VA
15. Salt Lake City, UT
16. Arlington, VA
17. Ann Arbor, MI
18. Eugene, OR
19. Buffalo, NY
20. St. Louis, MO

[ggplicks]

Madison and Pittsburgh above chicago?

[jjbradleynyc]

And Newark ahead of New York City? Head scratching.

Newark has come a long way over the past few years, but there are many sketchy areas. It may be walkable, but not sure if you'd want to walk in some parts. LOL

[ion475]

Originally Posted by jjbradleynyc

And Newark ahead of New York City? Head scratching.

Newark has come a long way over the past few years, but there are many sketchy areas. It may be walkable, but not sure if you'd want to walk in some parts. LOL

I'll say the same about Oakland - sure areas are walkable, but do you really want to walk around?

[NOVA_guy]

Sounds about right. When I lived in Arlington after college I didn’t even own a car… for years. I usually rode my bike or took Metro.

With all the growth in the south and sunbelt these days it’ll be interesting to see if they start investing more in public transportation, bike lanes, etc. that’s still very important to a lot of people.

[ggplicks]

Originally Posted by NOVA_guy

Sounds about right. When I lived in Arlington after college I didn’t even own a car… for years. I usually rode my bike or took Metro.

With all the growth in the south and sunbelt these days it’ll be interesting to see if they start investing more in public transportation, bike lanes, etc. that’s still very important to a lot of people.

Nah just building more subdivisions and parking garages. And why build more transit if the ridership is gonna be abysmal. Name a sunbelt/southern city where public transit is actually utilized at a decent rate

[CBOTfan]

Ironic. The list placed Chicago too low, yet used a picture of downtown Chicago at the top of the story.

% of population "commuting by public transportation" is different from % of population "that can easily commute by public transportation". The extensive CTA train and bus system is available to all who want to use it. User numbers are down due to other issues that the CTA will hopefully get worked out soon.

[TheProf]

I am always suspicious of these kinds of polls... The fact that New York City is not number 1 (and by a wide margin) immediately wrecks any credibility this may have.

[OyCrumbler]

The rankings are a bit funny which makes sense given the methodology used.

It seems to go by city limits (given the Newark and NYC split as well as the SF and Oakland split) which can vary quite a bit for a lot of the stats. It also does average price by adult base fare, but that doesn't seem to adjust for income differences among different places nor can it account for places with a lot of specialized fare programs (NYC has a lot of discounted fare programs, and I'm sure it's not the only place with such, and those can vary quite a bit). Also, not surprising given the source, they have a factor for coworking spaces per 100,000 residents.

[18Montclair]

Originally Posted by ion475

I'll say the same about Oakland - sure areas are walkable, but do you really want to walk around?

Oakland actually has lots of walkable areas that are very nice---Adams Point, Lakeshore, Grand Lake, Rockridge, Piedmont Avenue, etc even downtown and surrounding areas are not a chore to walk around.