Walkability Facts
Citable statistics on US walkability, pedestrian safety, and transit from public data, computed with the open SafeStreets methodology (DOI 10.5281/zenodo.20506270). Quote with attribution to SafeStreets by Streets & Commons.
How many Americans live in a 15-minute city?
Only 11.35% of US households, about 1 in 9, live in a 15-minute city where daily needs are within a short walk (13.73 million of 120.99 million households). Source: SafeStreets analysis of all 220,739 US census block groups, EPA Smart Location Database v3.
How concentrated are America's walkable neighborhoods?
Six US metro areas hold 40.7% of all walkable neighborhoods in the country, and the top twelve metros hold 53.2%. Source: SafeStreets analysis of the EPA Smart Location Database v3.
Do walkable neighborhoods have transit?
95.56% of walkable US neighborhoods have at least some transit service, showing that American walkability and transit grew up together. Source: SafeStreets analysis, EPA Smart Location Database v3.
How many Americans live somewhere both walkable and affordable?
Only 3.10% of US households live somewhere both walkable and affordable, and they cluster in old industrial cores including Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Milwaukee, Buffalo, Providence, and Allentown. Source: SafeStreets analysis, EPA SLD v3 joined to US Census ACS bottom-40% income.
How much more does a walkable neighborhood cost?
A home in the most walkable US neighborhoods costs 76% more per dollar earned than one in the least walkable, about 6 years of local income versus 3.4 (5.98x versus 3.40x local income). Source: SafeStreets analysis, Zillow Home Value Index (April 2026) joined to US Census ACS income.
What kind of road causes the most pedestrian deaths?
Arterial roads are just 9.5% of US road miles but cause 62.5% of pedestrian deaths (16,526 deaths over 2022 to 2024). Source: SafeStreets analysis of NHTSA FARS 2022-2024.
How much more dangerous are arterial roads for pedestrians?
Per mile, US arterial roads kill pedestrians at 6.6 times the rate their share of the road network would predict. Source: SafeStreets analysis of NHTSA FARS 2022-2024.
Where do pedestrian deaths actually happen?
40% of US pedestrian deaths happen at a single location type: mid-block on an arterial road, not at intersections. Source: SafeStreets analysis of NHTSA FARS 2022-2024.
Does speed determine whether a pedestrian survives being hit?
A pedestrian's chance of surviving a vehicle impact drops from about 90% at 30 km/h to under 10% at 60 km/h, which is why street design that controls speed is the primary lever for pedestrian survival. Source: impact-speed survival research, summarized by SafeStreets in 'Street Design Determines Survival.'
What are the deadliest pedestrian streets in America?
America's deadliest pedestrian streets for 2022 to 2024, by death count, are US-90 in New Orleans (21), SR-50 in Orlando (17), US-19 in Pasco County, Florida (16), Western Avenue in Los Angeles (14), West Thomas Road in Phoenix (14), Colfax Avenue in Aurora (13), Westheimer Road in Houston (11), and Broad Street in Philadelphia (10). Source: SafeStreets analysis of NHTSA FARS 2022-2024.
How big is the gap in frequent-transit access between US cities?
The share of metro residents within a 5-minute walk of transit that runs every 15 minutes or better ranges from 35% in Chicago to 2.9% in Atlanta, a 12-fold gap inside one country. Source: SafeStreets analysis of GTFS schedules across 8 major US transit metros.
Is most US transit about coverage or frequency?
Most US transit is built for coverage, not frequency: a stop on the map does not provide real independence if the bus comes only a couple of times an hour. Source: SafeStreets transit-frequency analysis.
How many 2026 World Cup stadiums have transit to the gate?
8 of the 16 stadiums for the 2026 World Cup sit within a short walk of everyday rapid transit, while 2 have no rail to the venue at all, including Arlington, Texas, the largest US city with no public transit. Source: SafeStreets review of host-city transit-agency 2026 plans.
Are there walkable neighborhoods with no shops?
81 US neighborhoods are walkable, dense, and affordable yet have almost no businesses: the physical bones for walkability exist but the shops are missing. Source: SafeStreets analysis, EPA SLD v3 plus business and POI data.
Why do Americans drive for short trips?
60% of US trips of one mile or less are made by car, so a 15-minute walk routinely becomes a calculation that ends with a key in an ignition. Source: SafeStreets analysis of the National Household Travel Survey 2022.
Does Jakarta have sidewalks in the map data?
Central Jakarta has almost no sidewalks in OpenStreetMap despite being one of Southeast Asia's densest cores, with just 78 mapped sidewalks for 7,676 street segments, about 1 sidewalk per 100 streets. Source: SafeStreets audit via OpenStreetMap Overpass, June 2026.
Open methodology: doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20506270. Score any address at SafeStreets.