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I can agree with that, Miami is a bit too high though. I know this might be an unpopular opinion, but Philadelphia has the infrastructure and bones to be the 2nd largest continuous walkable area in the US (after Brooklyn-Queens), with little to obstructions from geography or industry like Chicago has. Not saying it would be the densest, but it would be at that threshold where it would be perfectly functioning walkability.
Other than NYC, Chicago, and Philly, the top 10 is dominated by cities with small political borders. Miami 76 score for 35 sq miles isn't really that impressive--Chicago at 35 sq miles would be in the mid-90's, with a much higher population.
My guess is that Central LA/Westside has a cumulative score over 80. If it were a city (and indeed, it is larger in population than all but a few in the top 10), it would rank 2-3 in the United States. This would certainly confound those who hold the the traditionally held opinion that Los Angeles is devoid of walkability. Here's how the region breaks down:
Population density is in the 15,000 ppsm range. My guess is that 75-80% of the housing is multi-unit structures. The population is roughly 1.1 million minus the hillside communities, 1.3 million with.
Last edited by RaymondChandlerLives; 02-21-2014 at 12:52 PM..
I did the leg work for everyone so people can actually see how large 5 miles X 2 miles really is. Continuous urban development based on the most intense urban design assessed through built environment and structural density is as follows for the top 6 cities in America:
keep in mind this isn't perfect, but it is pretty close to an accurate measurement of 5 miles X 2 miles without any breaks over water etc. to give people an idea of what amount of the city would fall in such a measurement
Very cool maps! I modified your Boston one a bit because it's probably better to include Charleston & Cambridge instead of Brookline & Jamaica Plain if you're looking for the most urban areas.
Your map of DC seemed out of scale compared to the rest of the selections, as the area you selected in DC would only take 2.5 hours walking, compared to 4-5 hours in the other selections.
Typical of MDAllster to fudge numbers in his favor. The square around DC he used is only a couple of square miles at most LOL.
Philadelphia is interesting because it's densest pedestrian friendly urban environment with the most street level activity is some type of funky shape like this:
It would include all of Center City and University City and the surrounding neighborhoods in West Philadelphia, most of South Philadelphia, and most of Lower North Philadelphia up to Temple University
Your map of DC seemed out of scale compared to the rest of the selections, as the area you selected in DC would only take 2.5 hours walking, compared to 4-5 hours in the other selections.
You need to look at the miles north south and east west. All are as close as I could get to 5 miles by 2 miles. You can do a straight line measurement by miles on google maps if you would like.
Very cool maps! I modified your Boston one a bit because it's probably better to include Charleston & Cambridge instead of Brookline & Jamaica Plain if you're looking for the most urban areas.
You can't cross water. It has to be uninterrupted. You really shouldn't have massive parks either. This is why DC is above the national mall and NYC doesn't include Manhattan which would have Central Park and need to cross water to meet the 5X2 requirement.
Typical of MDAllster to fudge numbers in his favor. The square around DC he used is only a couple of square miles at most LOL.
OMG.... It really pisses me off when posters like you are so lazy you didn't even check the measurement yourself. The reason DC is less is because the parkland creates a natural barrier so there are only 3 sides on the google maps line. SMH.....you would have seen that if you had taken the time to open the link. The google line is not closed. It goes to Rock creek park. It would take too much time to create a line up that side of the city since there is no street to go up along the park. I would need like 30 additional routes. Who had time for that? SMH......check the north south and east west measurement!
You can't cross water. It has to be uninterrupted. You really shouldn't have massive parks either. This is why DC is above the national mall and NYC doesn't include Manhattan which would have Central Park and need to cross water to meet the 5X2 requirement.
That doesn't really make any sense then. Paris doesn't have contiguous urbanity because of the Seine, and Manhattan doesn't have contiguous urbanity because of Central Park? Why would a city be "punished" for having green space or water?
The National Mall separates the dense/urban parts from not as dense/urban parts, so is an obvious southern border for DC. The blocks south of the Mall tend to be rather dead.
You're exaggerating now. Koreatown, LA's most densely populated neighborhood, averages 2.7 persons per household. That's the average household size in Brooklyn. There are areas that fit your image, but they are largely absent from Central/Westside Los Angeles. L.A.'s density is legit for the most part.
Yeah most of these areas are in East LA and South LA.
I did the leg work for everyone so people can actually see how large 5 miles X 2 miles really is. Continuous urban development based on the most intense urban design assessed through built environment and structural density is as follows for the top 6 cities in America:
keep in mind this isn't perfect, but it is pretty close to an accurate measurement of 5 miles X 2 miles without any breaks over water etc. to give people an idea of what amount of the city would fall in such a measurement
Welp I didn't look at all of these but that Boston one is terrible. Tons of empty areas near Roxbury and JP that are really pretty suburban and you missed a lot of very active and urban areas along Comm Ave.
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