Welcome to the TravelPod forums

[starlagurl]

Travel Blissful has decided on the most walkable cities in America:

1. San Francisco (Chinatown, Financial District, Downtown)
2. New York (Tribeca, Little Italy, Soho)
3. Boston (Back-Bay Beacon Hill, South End, Fenway-Kenmore)
4. Chicago (Loop, Near North Side, Lincoln Park)
5. Philadelphia (City Center East, City Center West, Riverfront)
6. Seattle (Pioneer Square, Downtown, First Hill)
7. Washington D.C. (Dupont Circle, Logan Circle, Downtown)
8. Long Beach (Downtown, Belmont Shore, Belmont Heights)
9. Los Angeles (Mid City West, Downtown, Hollywood)
10. Portland (Pearl District, Old Town-China Town, Downtown)

I disagree with New York being so high up on the list.

I agree with Boston, Chicago and Philadelphia. I have walked a lot in those three cities and loved every second.

New York, not so much, I found the sidewalks were not very well taken care of and also that the drivers were aggressive to pedestrians.\

Where is your favourite place to walk?

[mmbcross]

Long Beach and Los Angeles? What poppycock! Those are cities built for cars, not pedestrians.

I favour the French Quarter of New Orleans or South Beach in Miami? Two other obvious choices are Savannah, Georgia and Charleston, South Carolina.

[starlagurl]

That's what I figured about those places, I've never been, but their reputation is no good! Maybe they are only referring to those specific neighbourhoods?

[sianeth]

A couple of my friends that have lived in America told me that people used to wind their car windows down and shout things like "get a car" "why are you walking" at them when they tried to walk anywhere!

[starlagurl]

I've never been yelled at, but I have experienced this from people.

"You need to invest in a car" when I tell them that I commute 45 minutes on my bike to get to work. *eyeroll*

Or, the first day of snow one year, I got caught in the storm on my bike at the grocery store. When I was leaving a man said to me "Time to get a car, eh?!" and then cackled and walked away.

[mmbcross]

My first visit to the United States was to Los Angeles. My friend, who lives in Glendale, picked me up at the airport. My lasting impression was that in just over an hour of driving between LAX and Glendale, I saw only a couple of pedestrians and thousands of cars. To me this was the most amazing thing I had ever seen!

[sianeth]

Pfft, bikes are soooo much better than cars! Apart from in the rain, then its pretty awful - I need to invest in a bike umbrella instead.

[mmbcross]

My goodness...they actually exist!

http://www.bikeumbrella.com/

[sianeth]

But has anyone ever seen them in use?!

Jeez, there's also a "witch umbrella" - how funny!

[starlagurl]

My first visit to the United States was to Los Angeles. My friend, who lives in Glendale, picked me up at the airport. My lasting impression was that in just over an hour of driving between LAX and Glendale, I saw only a couple of pedestrians and thousands of cars. To me this was the most amazing thing I had ever seen!

That IS amazing. I would like to see this at some point.

[kitkatgo]

Yeah, having L.A. on there is just stupid! Just like the song says, "No-body walks in L.A.!" It *is* fun to walk around Hollywood and look at the Walk of Fame. There's nothing to look at except tall buildings in Downtown and I dont' even know what they're referring to for "Mid-city West ???).

Portland, OR is a great walking city though.

[mysheri80]

I think they mean Mid-city Los Angles and West Los Angeles. I've lived in both areas and it's definitely not walkable. Everything in both the Mid-city and West LA area--LA in general also--is just too spread out. LA is a HUGE city, with little cities within the big city. Get my drift? Sure you can walk to maybe a 7-11 or fast food chain, but that's about it.

I like San Francisco because you don't have to walk very far to go to a good restaurant, park or even neighborhood bar. People are always out walking around, hanging out at a cafe, etc. There's also a really good mass transit system that facilitates walking more and driving less.

[scottshangguan]

But has anyone ever seen them in use?!

Jeez, there's also a "witch umbrella" - how funny!

In China virtually every bike has one. We have some which mount on motorcycle which covers the entire motorcycle. They're huge. It looks like they could fly if they caught a big gust of wind.