World Wisdom: Best Cities to Live Without a Car

 

Prefer to get around on two feet instead of four wheels? In some cities, you can easily ditch your car and hoof it — or bike, take public transit, and share a ride when you need to. With car ownership more expensive than ever and harming the environment, LawnStarter ranked 2023’s Best Cities to Live Without a Car. We compared the 200 biggest U.S. cities based on 19 indicators of car-free-friendliness. We measured each city’s walkability, transit ridership, climate, and pedestrian safety, among other factors. Check out the 10 best (and 10 worst) cities for going carless below, followed by some highlights and lowlights from our report. (See where your city ranks, and read our surprising findings.)

Best Cities to Live WIthout a Car Rank City 1 San Francisco, CA 2 Boston, MA 3 Washington, DC 4 New York, NY 5 Seattle, WA 6 Portland, OR 7 Fort Collins, CO 8 Minneapolis, MN 9 Madison, WI 10 Sunnyvale, CA Worst Cities to Live Without a Car Rank City 1 Mobile, AL 2 Clarksville, TN 3 Little Rock, AR 4 Shreveport, LA 5 Memphis, TN 6 Miramar, FL 7 Murfreesboro, TN 8 Huntsville, AL 9 Jackson, MS 10 Pembroke Pines, FL

Highlights and Lowlights: Big Cities Walk the Talk: The most populated cities continue to stand out as the Best Cities to Live Without a Car. Once again, San Francisco stands tallest at No. 1. Six other big cities also remained in our top 10 this year but with a bit of reshuffling. What do these cities have in common? They all ranked in the top 10 of our Access category and, save for Minneapolis at No. 11, in our Commute Culture rank. The denser a city, the less distance commuters have to travel and the more transportation options available. The South: Pedestrian at Best: Southern cities are seemingly built for cars, not people. Not a single city from this region cracked our top 25 or even our top 30. At No. 31, Alexandria, Virginia, is the South’s best performer — if you can call Alexandria “the South.” Otherwise, it’s Miami at No. 39. Mobile, Alabama, stumbled to last place. Why did the South fare so badly? Unbearable climes account for much of the problem, but it was an uphill battle in all other categories. There are, of course, some hidden gems. Miami, for example, ranked fifth overall in Access. In Commute Culture, New Orleans rolled to No. 15.  Our full ranking and analysis are available here: https://www.lawnstarter.com/blog/studies/best-cities-for-living-without-a-car/