A US Census Bureau report released last week shows that compared to most of the nation, a lot of Rochesterians walk to work. 6.2% of people walk to work in our fair city, which ranks us 15th among cities that have populations over 200,000. This is based on data gathered for the American Community Survey from 2008-2012.

How does Rochester compare to the nationwide average? Pretty darn good. Only 2.8% of people walked to work during that same 4 year period. Not surprisingly, the report shows that people who live in cities walk more than people in the suburbs (4.3% versus 2.4%). The 16-24 year-old age group had the highest rates of walking to work — 6.8%, as did people who make less than $10,000 per year. Here is the nationwide breakdown:

  • 86% drive
  • 5% take mass transit
  • 4.3% work at home
  • 2.8% walk
  • .6% bike

The report acknowledged that denser cities were more likely to offer public transportation, which makes biking and walking more attractive to commuters. To me, that is the holy grail in the answer to reducing our dependency on cars and encouraging people to walk more.
The Northeast is the region with the highest rates of walking in the country, where 4.7% of people walk to work. Our nearby college town of Ithaca, NY has about 42% of people walking to work. And if you look at the Census map above, New York is one of the few states that rank above 6.0%.
Here are the 15 cities with the most commuters who walk to work:
Boston, MA
Washington, DC
Pittsburgh, PA
New York, NY
San Francisco, CA
Madison, WI
Seattle, WA
Urban Honolulu, HI
Philadelphia, PA
Jersey City, NJ
Newark, NJ
Baltimore, MD
Minneapolis, MN
Chicago, IL
Rochester, NY

The number of those who bike to work is on the rise, despite it still being a fairly low number overall. The West is the region with the highest number of bike commuters. There wasn’t a stat on biking specifically for Rochester, but I find the increasing numbers of bike commuters nationwide a good sign!

We know there are all sorts of reasons people choose to walk/bike to work versus drive, income being one of them. For many people, walking isn’t a choice. But for many others (as we see from the economic data), it is. They have a choice of where to live and how to get to work. Proximity is, of course, a huge factor. And commuting safety is a big part of it too. In many places of the country, even if you could walk to work, you wouldn’t because of the lack of sidewalks, lack of landscaping (trees) and the danger crossing multiple lane roads. In so many places, we have built our communities around cars instead of people. But it is a trend many across the country are reversing. And, I for one, am happy to see that Rochester ranks among the highest in the nation for walking commuters.
[Image courtesy of the US Census Bureau].