12 BEST WALKING CITIES - THESE CITIES MAKE GREAT STRIDES FOR FITNESS

Prevention Magazine
June 25, 2004
By Dana Bowen and Matthew DeBord

Intro/East
A great walking city needs more than verdant parks and balmy weather. In 2003, the American Podiatric Medical Association, in conjunction with Prevention, studied the major US cities and then tabulated and weighed 20 criteria of interest to pedestrians, including crime, mass transit, air quality, and the number of historic sites, museums, and gyms each city has. The APMA crunched the numbers and ranked the 125 best US cities for walkers, the top 12 of which are featured here. So even if you don't live in one of them, consider these urban oases when planning your next vacation or business trip.

Northeast
Philadelphia, PA
Mayor John Street really wants both visitors and locals to explore Philly on foot: He leads annual city walks, awards "frequent mover miles" redeemable for citywide discounts, and even hired fitness czar Gwen Foster to train neighborhood walking groups. According to the APMA, this city also offers pedestrians the country's highest concentration of historic sites (1,379), one of the largest urban refuges (Fairmount Park, with nearly 9,000 acres), and more than 150 museums. Recent improvements from Old City to Rittenhouse Square, such as sidewalk extensions to shorten the crossing distance, have convinced a whopping 37% of downtown residents to walk to work. Now that's a stat worth emulating.

Jersey City, NJ
Most people don't associate this gritty metropolis with a stroller's paradise. Time to think again: With more than 13,000 residents per square mile, Jersey City is one of the most densely populated yet pedestrian-friendly places in the country, reports the APMA. "We have a lot of people, not a lot of parking," says Bob Cotter, who's in charge of city planning. "And nothing will make you walk like not having a car." Jersey City gets high marks for the number of people who walk to work and, more important, how often and how long residents exercise (about an hour every other day) when they're not working. You might, too, if you had access to Jersey City's Liberty State Park, with its almost 2 miles of hiker-friendly parkland and well-lit riverfront walkways with free Manhattan views.

New York, NY
There's often no faster, easier, or more scenic way to get around the five boroughs than on foot, so it's no wonder the APMA found more people walking to work here than anywhere else in the country. City agencies offer incentives such as Safety City, a traffic and walking safety program for schoolkids; spruced-up fitness paths along the Hudson River; and a cab-halting network of 689 speed bumps (completed in spring 2003) throughout the city. In the APMA study, New York ranked first in the number of museums (224), third in museum attendance, and fourth for historic and scenic sites.

West
San Diego, CA
"Aside from the weather, two things make San Diego highly walkable," says Stephan Vance, who's with the regional planning agency. "Good places to walk, and great things to walk to." The APMA study concurs: It found that 37 million people flock to San Diego's 53 museums, 15 of which are situated in walker-friendly Balboa Park. San Diego's downtown, especially the vibrant Gaslamp Quarter, is also buzzing with foot traffic. When the Padres' stadium, Petco Park, opens in the old warehouse district late in 2004, city planners expect fans to arrive via light rail and linger (read: walk) after games. To prepare, Mayor Dick Murphy is planting trees along sidewalks to reduce heat and carbon dioxide, provide shade, and make walking here even more enjoyable.

San Francisco, CA
Hills are no deterrent to walkers in this pedestrian- and mass-transit-friendly city. The APMA study credits clean air, museums, and the highest rate of mass-transit usage in the country with making San Francisco one of America's best walking cities. Billboards remind walkers that "Nothing stops them like a smile. Being seen is being safe." Since 1996, auto accidents involving pedestrians have dropped more than 20% as cars have conceded to walkers' right of way. San Francisco wows with its technical wizardry--crosswalk lights flash when it's foggy, and new countdown clocks leave fewer folks stranded on the median. No wonder San Franciscans walk a respectable average of 35 minutes per outing.

Honolulu, HI
When walking in Honolulu, no matter where you look, there's a fabulous view. The recent addition of bike racks on buses has encouraged even more people to take the healthy scenic route by combining walking with biking. Downtown Honolulu, located 3 miles from Waikiki Beach, offers year-round sunshine and 26 museums (which attract close to 4 million visitors each year), making it a top destination for culture seekers who prefer hoofing it. The city takes good care of walkers--Honolulu's Transportation Services has widened sidewalks along Kalakaua Avenue, Waikiki's heavily trafficked beachfront main street, and groups lead walking tours up Diamond Head, the extinct volcano that sits nearby.

Midwest
Madison, WI
There are few cities in the country that combine manageable physical size with pedestrian friendliness as well as Madison does. Its air has admirably low levels of vehicle emissions, and Madisonians devote an average of nearly 45 minutes to every exercise-walking session. The city's violent crime rate is negligible, it has a surprising number of museums (17) for a small metropolis, and it provides enough public transportation to place it in the APMA study's top 30 in the country. Serious and recreational walkers alike should put it on their must-visit list.

Chicago, IL
Despite Chicago's reputation as an architectural playground ripe for exploration, harsh Midwestern winters do make walking a challenge. Yet the city's lakefront is generally 10 degrees F warmer in winter and cooler in summer than the surrounding area. In this sprawling city, the best walking terrain is concentrated in the Loop and along Lake Michigan, where a green space stretches for 18 miles. Walkers will be particularly interested in Chicago's free trolley system, now in its fourth year of operation, that links commuter trains and the famous El with many of the city's cultural attractions. Besides that, Chicago has 149 museums and 661 historic sites, both top-10 numbers in the APMA study.

St. Louis, MO
In addition to Gateway Arch, which is surrounded by a large park, and the Mississippi River, St. Louis abounds in cultural attractions. Most are free, but if museums aren't your thing, it's possible to explore St. Louis's two downtowns, one urban, the other suburban, on foot. They're linked by a public transportation system that will be expanded in the next decade (it currently runs for more than 30 miles and features plenty of park-and-ride drop-off locations so you don't have to bring a car). St. Louis is also fairly flat, making it a less physically taxing place to explore on foot than some cities, especially during hot, humid summers. This may be why walkers in St. Louis devote more than 30 minutes, on average, to their exercise sessions. But perhaps the best news of all is a plan to "cap," or cover, the major freeway in 2005 that currently separates Gateway Arch from downtown. Pedestrians will get a brand-new park in the bargain.

South
Washington, DC
The nation's capital features one of the finer pedestrian thoroughfares anywhere: a vast 146-acre National Mall, stretching between the Capitol Building and the Washington Monument, surrounded by government buildings, museums, and memorials. Washington's extensive public transportation system--with nearly 25 miles per capita, according to the APMA study--makes it easy to move around and out of town. The DC Department of Transportation does its part to maintain a pedestrian-friendly environment with PedSafe, a citywide program that recently implemented a new crosswalk-signaling system with a timer to help walkers gauge crossing time.

San Antonio, TX
You may remember the Alamo, but you probably didn't know that this central Texas metropolis boasts 157 miles of natural creekways, all ready to be explored on foot. This is just one of San Antonio's many pedestrian secrets. A unique geography is another: The city straddles the divide between the Hill Country to the north and flatter, rolling plains to the south. This sort of stark topographical contrast gives walkers the rare opportunity to either test their stamina or take it easy--or both--over the course of one long walk. Air quality is outstanding; the APMA study scored San Antonio's air quality index 94 out of a possible 100.

El Paso, TX
This Texas city, perhaps better known from country-music lyrics and its proximity to Mexico (Juarez is just across the Rio Grande), scored number one in a pair of vital APMA stats: number of walking sessions residents rack up per month (20) and number of miles walked per session (2.3). Clearly, folks aren't getting around this town on horseback. And they don't let the heat intimidate them. El Paso--where daytime temperatures in summer can climb well above 100 degrees F--is, as parks operation manager Richard Garcia put it, "big on shade." Covered picnic tables fill the parks, and according to Garcia, El Paso's motto for developers is "remove a tree, plant three."

Both Dana Bowen and Matthew DeBord are freelance writers who live in Brooklyn, NY, who write frequently on travel and culture.