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I think one subjective measurement of whether or not you live in a faster-paced city - if people who don't walk up and down escalators automatically squeeze over to the right to let people by. Of course this assumes that there are enough people to force this to happen, which limits us to only a number of cities in the first place, and then if people know there are going to be people running to catch a train and they are used to people pushing through, out of habit they will already be over to the side.
New York for sure. Everywhere. You will get stampeded if you're in the way.
Chicago for sure. Everywhere.
DC for sure, but I don't have any experience outside of the District. Are the suburbs like this?
Philly Center City and surrounds for sure, but not as many opportunities for this in the burbs, so not sure about that.
Boston for sure. Everywhere. But same as Philly...not a lot of suburban opportunities to test this theory out.
SF for sure, but not outside of the City and Oakland. It's like people forget this common courtesy as soon as they are in Concord or Walnut Creek.
Atlanta...heck no. Those people are never in a hurry, really not even on the roads (despite the traffic).
Miami...when it comes to walking, those people are the slowest (I mean oddly enough, it seems that walkers in Miami are jobless and often fat...and it's hot and sticky, just not a good walking town). When it comes to driving, those people are lunatics. So escalators? In Miami, what are those? Honking your horn, flicking someone off after cutting them off? Yea, that's a common habit.
I think density begets pace, in a way. You start packing more people into one place and you're going to start building a me me me mentality driven by a need to get somewhere and a constant struggle to get there quickly. This applies to grocery lines, too. In the south, shoot me in those darn lines. Those people... In New York, you could be in line at a bodega and not take your card out fast enough and someone behind you might grumble. Night and day difference. Most large cities are somewhere in between. Depending on where, the fastest "pace" I've felt outside of NYC has either been in Chicago or SF. Not DC. Type A? Yea that's DC. But the pace of the city just doesn't feel so fast to me that I'm overwhelmed on visits (and it's been years since I've been, so maybe changed?).
Grew up in the DC area, and I live in Chicago now. In the Loop area during rush hour, I definitely find Chicago faster-paced than DC. It has more of a hustle-and-bustle feel than DC to me. With Chicago's large downtown with so many people working in the skyscrapers you just have more people in the area, and there are a lot of commercial business around, so you get the hustle-and-bustle feel to it, moreso than DC. Weather plays a part in the pace I think because in the winter, you don't have people taking their time. Everyone is on the move.
I will say that it thins out outside the Loop, so if you consider River North downtown (which some people do), I would find places like K Street or areas around Metro Center in DC to be busier to River North. If you go outside their core downtown areas, they are hard to compare. I find the Loop to be more fast-paced than any place in DC.
Besides NYC (obviously), I personally find Center City Philly to be slightly faster-paced than Chicago and maybe Boston too. I would put Chicago after the Northeast's Big 3 (for cities I'm most familiar with).
For some reason, I've always found Downtown Boston to be rather busy. I think we pulled pedestrian counts for the Bean and found that it had the highest pedestrian counts in its core outside of SF, Chicago and NYC. The area around the Common always seem particularly busy to me--much busier than any comparable area of DC.
I was in Center City during rush hour not long ago and was surprised by how busy it seemed. Philadelphia, in general, seems slow and lethargic whenever I go home (comparatively), but Center City seemed very active. I think the density of the built environment contributes to that. Perhaps it creates some type of optical illusion or something.
In New York, you could be in line at a bodega and not take your card out fast enough and someone behind you might grumble.
Never seen a line at a bodega. Though if you go to the Rite Aid at 117th and Douglass, there is a constant line that stretches to the back of the store. And no matter how long it gets there's only one person working as a cashier. Oddly enough, nobody ever complains. Perhaps native Harlemites are simply accustomed to a much sh*ttier level of customer service (the same way they're accustomed to a much crappier quality of police treatment).
^^^You've never had people behind you while checking out? Come on. Even in SF I always have people behind me at my local corner store, at Walgreens, etc.
The "fastness" of the East Coast is basically just New York. I would say the East Coast cities feel faster than LA because they have decidedly busier downtown cores with more pedestrian volume and more transit commuting. However, I don't see a major difference between San Francisco and, say, Boston here. DC has the least pedestrian volume and the lowest density of all the legacy transit cities so I don't see much of an objective basis for saying it's faster.
Oh okay, got it.
Here's a few typical Union Square area sidewalk vid, no holiday or special occasion. https://youtu.be/ldnLxTablA8
Just because an area is vibrant doesn't mean it's fast paced. Plenty of European cities that have a ton of people in the city-center, but are not fast paced places. People seem to fall into that trap on this forum.
Also, at least in my experience, people in Atlanta drive fast. Now when I was in Dallas 2 weeks ago, people drove slow...I was one of the fastest drivers on the road and I was barely going 70 or so because I wasn't acquainted with the area. In Atlanta, I drive around 80 and other people generally do the same.
Just because an area is vibrant doesn't mean it's fast paced. Plenty of European cities that have a ton of people in the city-center, but are not fast paced places. People seem to fall into that trap on this forum.
Also, at least in my experience, people in Atlanta drive fast. Now when I was in Dallas 2 weeks ago, people drove slow...I was one of the fastest drivers on the road and I was barely going 70 or so because I wasn't acquainted with the area. In Atlanta, I drive around 80 and other people generally do the same.
True, vibrancy and pace are not necessarily the same thing, but this is not Europe, every major US metro region has large freeway networks and most people drive, whether or not freeway driving speed is a major factor is a valid question I suppose.
I have read through this thread, but may have missed one important point. How do you define "fast-paced"?
Let me give it a try...Ever hear of a New York minute? This is an expression that means basically that a minute passes faster in NYC than anywhere else. It is a common phrase in the eastern US, and was even a title of a Don Henley song.
So, my definition would be how fast walkers walk, how fast drivers drive, and how impatient residents are when it comes to being delayed. I think NYC falls at the top of the list in most of these, though I have found around the city outside of Manhatten, drivers on the major expressways are not that fast, but easily irritated.
Bos-Wash corridor major cities are the fastest pace by a lot. Then probably LA and SF bay area, because of size and the large business influences.
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Though if you go to the Rite Aid at 117th and Douglass, there is a constant line that stretches to the back of the store. And no matter how long it gets there's only one person working as a cashier. Oddly enough, nobody ever complains. Perhaps native Harlemites are simply accustomed to a much sh*ttier level of customer service (the same way they're accustomed to a much crappier quality of police treatment).
