Community Corner

Berkeley Ranked 3rd in U.S. for Walkable Cities

Berkeley has been ranked third "most walkable" city in the U.S. in a survey of cities with 100,000 or more population.

A survey of the "most walkable" U.S. cities over 100,000 population has ranked Berkeley third in the nation.

Ranked first was Cambridge, MA, followed by Colubmia, SC. The assessment looked at what percentage of people get to work by walking.

It was 18.1 percent in Berkeley, compared with 24.5 percent in Cambridge and 20.7 percent in Columbia. In 10th-place Providence, RI, 10.8 percent walked to work.

Berkeley ranked first among the top 10 in the percent who work from home – by a large margin, 11.6 percent, compared to 6.5 percent in Cambridge, which had the second-highest proportion working from home.

"Look to these walkable cities as examples leading the way," according to a Huffington Post article posted Jan. 16 and updated this past Saturday.

The rankings, published by Governing.com, relied on 2012 data from American Community Survey by the U.S. Census Bureau.

"In general," said Governing.com, "college towns tend to boast far greater numbers of walk commuters than other cities. For example, in Columbia, S.C., -- home to the University of South Carolina – more than 70 percent of all walk commuters surveyed in the Census data are under age 25."

"In Cambridge, about third of all people walking to work are younger than 25 -- more typical of other cities."

Here are the top 10 and the percent who walk to work.

  1. Cambridge, Mass. 24.5%
  2. Columbia, S.C. 20.7%
  3. Berkeley, Calif.18.1%
  4. Ann Arbor, Mich. 15.5%
  5. Boston, Mass. 15.5%
  6. Provo, Utah 12.2%
  7. Washington, D.C. 11.9%
  8. New Haven, Conn. 11.2%
  9. Syracuse, N.Y. 11%
  10. Providence, R.I. 10.8%
See also:

-----------------

For another way to connect with Berkeley Patch, you can "like" us on Facebook.    


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here