People often tout the fact that LA is the densest metro in the country. However, this ignores the facts of life on the ground for the typical person living in LA versus the typical person living in SF or NYC. For the typical person, how dense is the neighborhood in which they live? This can't really be answered by traditional the traditional density measure.
http://www.citylab.com/housing/2012/...t-metros/3450/
Here are figures for the top metros (a more readable version is here
http://seattletransitblog.com/2012/1...e-stacks-up/):
New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-PA 31,251.40
San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA 12,144.90
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, CA 12,113.90
Honolulu, HI 11,548.20
Chicago-Joliet-Naperville, IL-IN-WI 8,613.40
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA 8,417.70
Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, MA-NH 7,980.10
Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD 7,773.20
Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, FL 7,395.30
San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, CA 6,920.50
Las Vegas-Paradise, NV 6,527.20
Salinas, CA 6,402.30
Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV 6,388.10
Santa Barbara-Santa Maria-Goleta, CA 6,242.80
Trenton-Ewing, NJ 5,864.60
Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, CA 5,542.20
Baltimore-Towson, MD 5,435.70
Laredo, TX 5,300.10
Milwaukee-Waukesha-West Allis, WI 5,257.60
Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, CT 5,122.40
Stockton, CA 4,889.10
Denver-Aurora-Broomfield, CO 4,803.70
Providence-New Bedford-Fall River, RI-MA 4,763.70
Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA 4,721.60