Which US city has the most households without a car?

New York, at 52.5% of households with no vehicle available. Philadelphia is second at 22.5% and Chicago third at 20.8%. The thirty-point gap between first and second is larger than the nineteen-point spread across the remaining forty-nine cities.

What share of US households in large cities have no car?

The median across the 50 largest US cities is 8.5%. Thirty-two of the fifty sit below 10%. The national figure across all neighborhoods is 8.9%, itself pulled upward by New York.

Which large US city has the fewest car-free households?

San Jose, at 3.7%, below Fort Worth at 4.7% and Albuquerque at 4.8%. San Jose has a lower drive-alone commute share than Fort Worth, so fewer people there commute by car and almost nobody manages without owning one.

Is car ownership the same as car use?

No. Boulder has only 4.3% car-free households but a 48.8% drive-alone share, among the lowest of the fifty. Residents own cars and leave them parked. Ownership measures whether a household can survive without the expense; commuting measures what they do on a weekday morning.

How was this measured?

US Census American Community Survey five-year estimates at neighborhood level. For each city, every neighborhood whose centroid falls within 20 km of the city centroid, population-weighted. Two variables: households with no vehicle available, and workers who drove alone to work. Cities with fewer than 20 valid neighborhoods were excluded.

One city where half of households have no car

In New York 52.5% of households have no vehicle. In Philadelphia, second among the 50 largest US cities, 22.5%. The gap between first and second is larger than the gap between second and fiftieth.

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