Going car-free has its benefits, saving money on gas, auto insurance and repairs among them. Still, embracing such a lifestyle is much easier in certain cities, like New York, where 44 percent of people commute using public transportation, according to a recent CoworkingCafe study that ranked 111 U.S. cities from best to worst for going car-free.
Data contributing to the ranking included the share of commuters using public transportation, the percentage biking and walking to work, gas prices, subway or other public transit station density, and the average fare per trip for adult riders. It was pulled from the U.S. census, the Federal Transit Administration, Walk Score and CoworkingCafe’s proprietary data, among other sources.
New York’s vast 24-hour public transportation system of buses and subways charges a flat $3 per trip, but a large share of residents commuted on foot or by bike, although less than in some cities. (Columbia, S.C., Boston and Ann Arbor, Mich., were most popular for walking commutes; Eugene, Ore., Fort Collins, Colo., Gainesville, Fla. and Portland, Ore. for biking.)
Citing census data, Adelina Nicoara, the study’s author, said about 1.1 million New York households have at least one car, compared to more than 1.9 million households that don’t. She praised the city’s varied, well-developed public transit infrastructure and walkability, attributing the latter to the densely packed city’s concentration of mixed-use developments where people live, work and play in close proximity.
Source: www.nytimes.com
