Best biking and walking cities

[ChargerCarl]

Originally Posted by Eightball

How is walking not a useful way to get around SD and LA? Both cities also boast solid and expanding transit systems for longer distances

Probably because only a very small % of people in the region live and work near transit lines?

[ThePhun1]

Originally Posted by Eightball

LA/SD/SF are tops in my opinion. I say this because of the year round pleasant weather. The great cities of the NE may have better urban design, but the weather sucks there half the year or more, greatly hindering walkability.

Great point, I didn't even think of that.

[The North One]

San Diego seems like a nightmare, even Miami is more walkable. The city is nowhere near even the top 100 walkable cities in America.

What is with this "I can't handle the slightest bit of cold weather" pussy attitude that West Coasters always drag out, it's literally all you people ever talk about, nobody cares.

There is this great new invention called the jacket, you might want to try it!

[Tom Servo]

Miami over Chicago? Laughable.

Miami is a sprawling, auto-centric city. Maybe Miami Beach... maybe.

[Centropolis]

i guess it's possible that west coasters never want/do leave the west coast, and the weather really is great in california, of course.

i mean we have a fucking entire continent-span, which is nuts for one country.

the downside is that you might be wrong about some things re: american cities.

[Centropolis]

Originally Posted by Eightball

I lived in DC for 6 years. I'll grant it snows more elsewhere but winter still sucks there. Endless grey for months on end is soul crushing. And summers don't need to be mentioned... yuck. It's still walkable of course but nothing like the year round pleasant-ness of walking in coastal California.

see.

now. i think too much sunshine can be depressing, in a funny way. cloudiness brings an introspection and calm for me.

d.c. of course is quite sunny, snow/slush free and pleasant to be out and about in winter. the weather is changable - certainly more than the pacific northwest. truckloads of dark blue sky clear winter days.

[The North One]

Originally Posted by Centropolis

i guess it's possible that west coasters never want/do leave the west coast, and the weather really is great in california, of course.

i mean we have a fucking entire continent-span, which is nuts for one country.

the downside is that you might be wrong about some things re: american cities.

I mean, I could personally never sleep at night or feel safe living in the ring of fire or a city without any fresh water, but you don't see me pushing that as a factor of walkability!

It's a revelation for southern Californians to even entertain the idea that people enjoy seasons, I like seeing the leaves turn (It wouldn't be Halloween without it), I like warm nights inside by the fireplace on a winters day and I like watching the trees flower all around me in the spring. The snowiest it gets is in January, boo hoo, one month, suck it up. The same weather every day of the year is nothing less than boring, spice up your damn life a bit, jeez. You hear it so many times it's almost oppressive and constantly disregards the fact that the rest of the country ALSO has summers. /rant

[CaliNative]

I live in San Diego. I sometimes travel to the east & midwest, and love to walk in NYC, Boston, and Chicago between Thanksgiving & New Years. Bring a warm coat, but it is great time. Would rather walk in cold weather (except in a blizzard) than sweltering summer weather. Washington is especially better in fall and winter. The summers are just too hot & humid to walk much.

Regarding San Diego, downtown SD is very walkable, especially the historic Gaslamp district and Embacadero, Balboa Park, Old Town, Mission Beach, La Jolla coast, Del Mar, Coronado. Very pleasant walks. Good transit in many areas (the Trolley). A few hills, but mostly less steep than San Francisco hills. Good exercise. Coronado is very flat, so if you hate hills, there are many pleasant walks and bike routes along the coast, bayfront (outstanding San Diego skyline views) and through the interesting neighborhoods with lots of nice old houses.

The Los Angeles area has many interesting and walkable areas. Of course along the coast, Santa Monica & Venice Beach come to mind, and the Venice canals have sidewalks. Long Beach coast, Downtown, Hollywood, old Pasadena, many places on the westside. Transit connections are constantly improving. Now you can go from Azusa all the way to Santa Monica beach on light rail.

[ThePhun1]

Originally Posted by The North One

I mean, I could personally never sleep at night or feel safe living in the ring of fire or a city without any fresh water, but you don't see me pushing that as a factor of walkability!

It's a revelation for southern Californians to even entertain the idea that people enjoy seasons, I like seeing the leaves turn (It wouldn't be Halloween without it), I like warm nights inside by the fireplace on a winters day and I like watching the trees flower all around me in the spring. The snowiest it gets is in January, boo hoo, one month, suck it up. The same weather every day of the year is nothing less than boring, spice up your damn life a bit, jeez. You hear it so many times it's almost oppressive and constantly disregards the fact that the rest of the country ALSO has summers. /rant

That's what timeshares, hotels and second homes are for.

[lrt's friend]

Walkability is easily measured by how many people are actually walking on the streets. Good transit will also increase the number of people walking on the streets. Just look at cities like Toronto and Montreal. Cold weather is generally not a deterrent.

[Jonesy55]

For cycling I guess it's hard to beat Amsterdam or Copenhagen, very flat cities, great cycling infrastructure. For walking anywhere compact enough that you can get anywhere you need to get to on a day to day basis within no more than about 30 minutes on foot.

[Leo the Dog]

Originally Posted by The North One

San Diego seems like a nightmare, even Miami is more walkable. The city is nowhere near even the top 100 walkable cities in America.

What is with this "I can't handle the slightest bit of cold weather" pussy attitude that West Coasters always drag out, it's literally all you people ever talk about, nobody cares.

There is this great new invention called the jacket, you might want to try it!

San Diego should be much higher on the list. The problem is the city limits covers fringe elements of the metro region along the border and North/East suburban areas and topography that can't be developed.

All coastal and central neighborhoods are densely packed and on a grid. The city limits include huge canyons, (the mesas are densely settled) federal lands and mountains alongside suburban sprawl and undeveloped lands on the northern frontier.

Of course if you live 20 miles north of DT in a place like Rancho Bernardo (yet is till within the city limits), then you're going to have suburban sprawl, but many of SD's suburbs are densely settled, walkable neighborhoods with DT districts many with rail connections. (Oceanside, Carlsbad, Del Mar/Solana Beach, La Mesa, Chula Vista).

Balboa Park and surrounding neighborhoods

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Pacific Beach, SD

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Ocean Beach, SD

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The climate is perfect for pedestrians year round. Rarely do we experience extreme heat over 85 or overnight lows in January below 45. 10" of precipitation on average. We usually fall in the temp range of 60-80, sometimes New Years Day will have a higher high temp than the 4th of July.

[dktshb]

10 years ago on this site I walked Los Angeles from Santa Monica to Downtown and back and beyond and produced probably 50 different photo threads. I get around by foot for the majority of the time and probably walk well over 1500 miles of streets here a year. Whenever I visit a city in North America or Europe I walk it so I know Los Angeles certainly isn't as wonderful walking experience as Prague, Rome, NY, SF, Wien, etc, etc... but I really quite enjoy walking all over this city. Rarely do I ever come across any obstacles (yeah more cars and more driveways). For every wide street (and I know there are many) there are countless other route opportunities through gorgeous quiet tree lined neighborhoods filled with beautiful architecture. Sidewalks (we actually have them) like many of the streets tend to be wide with some exceptions. And yes there are many intersections that are bad and I avoid. To live and walk in this city you just have to plot out your route and maybe give it a little more thought, but I am sure that that is the case in every city. Anyway, just my experience.

[ChargerCarl]

Again, theres a difference between walking as a form of consumption and as a form of transit. For most trips in LA walking is not an efficient form of transportation.

[badrunner]

Why insist on such a narrow criteria for what makes a "good" walking city?

[ChargerCarl]

Originally Posted by badrunner

Why insist on such a narrow criteria for what makes a "good" walking city?

Because when people label a city "walkable" they're mostly talking about the latter.

[badrunner]

So, by that narrow criteria (walking being "an efficient form of transportation"), a Rio favela would be more "walkable" than, say, the strip at Manhattan Beach?

[ChargerCarl]

Originally Posted by badrunner

So, by that narrow criteria (walking being "an efficient form of transportation"), a Rio favela would be more "walkable" than, say, the strip at Manhattan Beach?

Rio favela's are very walkable. Why is that odd? The most walkable places in America were built before we started heavily regulating density and separated land use. As far as I know Rio's favelas are largely unplanned, so them being more walkable should hardly be a surprise.

Also we're talking about broad areas, not tiny pockets.

[Gordo]

Originally Posted by badrunner

So, by that narrow criteria (walking being "an efficient form of transportation"), a Rio favela would be more "walkable" than, say, the strip at Manhattan Beach?

Obviously, yes. I don't really see why that's a "narrow" criteria.

[dktshb]

Originally Posted by ChargerCarl

Again, theres a difference between walking as a form of consumption and as a form of transit. For most trips in LA walking is not an efficient form of transportation.

Walking is the most often used mode of transit in my daily life in Hollywood. It is much less stressful and less expensive than driving.