Metropolitan Areas Ranked for Walkability
The Brookings Institution recently ranked America’s most walkable big cities. Milwaukee didn’t crack the top 25 unfortunately, but consider this…
However, the Brookings report itself has some major flaws. I know I’m going to sound like a major hater here, but somehow out of 30 metropolitan regions nationwide, the Miami-Ft Lauderdale-West Palm Beach metro ranked 8th place – above metros like New York and Philadelphia! For anyone who knows anything about cities and metropolitan regions, this should immediately raise a red flag.
So how is such a ranking possible, you ask? It comes down to Brookings’ flawed methodology for calculating walkable areas in each metro. Instead of calculating the percentage of area that is walkable in each metropolitan region, the Institution instead chose to go by arbitrary districts or neighborhoods, which vary considerably in size and functionality. For example, both Center City, Philadelphia and Coconut Grove, Miami were chosen as walkable locales within their respective metros. However, despite Center City being much, much larger than Coconut Grove, the two areas count the same…. Read more from Transit Miami
Milwaukee, while far from the ranks of Chicago and New York in terms of walkability, has made significant strides in the past few year. Things like the Marsupial Bridge, Oak Leaf Trail, and Riverwalk are significant and growing assets that signal the emergence of a pedestrian culture in urban Milwaukee.
Plus, it’s hard to ignore a city that has willingly removed an urban freeway to replace it with pedestrian-minded buildings.
So yeah, Milwaukee isn’t on a flawed list today, but the community at-large is working to set the standard for tomorrow.
Yea normally the Brookings Institue puts out quality reports but this one appears to have some very bad math!
Comedy. When you consider metros, they’re almost all equally NON-walkable. Suburbia tends to be suburbia. Cities are obviously a different story.
I think the only way to make the metro comparisons valid is to consider how many communters use transit, in which case New York blows everyone else away, especially Miami!
Checking out your site.
Milwaukee seemed a little bit difficult to navigate by foot. Especially, the areas on the southern fringe of downtown that are barricaded by I-794.
I don’t understand Miami’s ranking. Maybe these people only visited South Beach; which is actually part of the city of Miami Beach.
Really? I know the area along I794 is a little difficult but walking from downtown northeast you can walk a very long way through neighborhood after neighborhood. That’s my take.
As far as Miami I found South Beach very walkable but the City of Miami not walkable at all.
I found it difficult, because the points of interest downtown do not seem to be within walking distance:
Old Town – Bradley Center Area
Jefferson – Collection of pubs and restaurants
Lakefront – Museums and Beaches
Milwaukee Ave – Bars / Clubs
I am not a Milwaukee native, but shoot up to Milwaukee from time to time to get a change of pace from Chicago. I would often drive to a location, walk a few blocks to the end of a particular strip, return to the car, drive about 1-2 miles, repeat.
Being that I am a visitor, of course I do not know the ins and outs of the city.