Is Seattle as walkable as Bristol in England? Here in Bournemouth once my phone was declined by the bus and I ended up walking to one of the furthest suburbs, it took just over an hour, but pavement/sidewalk was there to walk on.

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I’ve got conflicting info, so just wondering. Bearing in mind England isn’t like the Netherlands.

15 comments
  1. I don’t know about Seattle but New York City is incredible walkable. One of my favorite parts of living here. That and the public transportation.

  2. Not normally. America is a huge country that is very spread out between people. Unless you’re in a dense populated city, it won’t as walkable. Even dense cities can be less walkable than the next depending on the infrastructure of the city.

  3. No.

    We do have sidewalks, though.

    American cities tend to be more spread out then most European cities. Every city is a bit like London, in that way.

  4. short answer: no

    long answer: English cities tend to be more walkable than American cities due to their compact layouts and pedestrian-friendly policies (also they were designed before cars were a thing). Many American cities were built around the car and have more spread-out layouts. However, there are efforts to improve walkability, such as creating pedestrian-friendly public spaces and bike lanes in many of our cities

  5. Not even close.

    The most walkable American cities tend to be as walkable as the less walkable European cities. Even in places like New York City and San Francisco, we’ve handed a considerable amount of the public right-of-way over to high-volume, high-speed vehicle movement.

  6. It depends what you mean by walkable. There will be sidewalks and walking paths, but they will not be convenient and destinations maybe be several miles away.

  7. Not really. Most of our cities are so new we were able to build our cities to take advantage of cars. Some small parts of some of cities can be experienced in foot, but it’s a very insulated experience and limiting in choices. There just not much that can be put within walking distance as I’m sure you’ve observed in Europe

  8. Some of the east coast is, basically nothing is west of the Mississippi. We’ve just got more space so our cities sprawl out and alot of them were developed after cars.

  9. bro I live like five miles from my city’s downtown and my street doesn’t even have sidewalks

  10. My personal experience living in Seattle proper and having visited London a few times is that I prefer walking in Seattle. I found the local environment in London to be less pleasant (less tree cover), a lot of the side walks to be very skinny, and also I didn’t like the laws which gave cars the right of way over pedestrians. I can easily walk or bike for hours in this city, and stay in bike lanes, walking paths, or on sidewalks (pavement). Also in London I felt like there were more aggressive people and less respect for personal space.

    Of course I live on a “Safe Street” in a particularly walkable and well-off suburb, and there are many poorer parts of Seattle which have the issue of strip malls and highways ruining the walkability. So I’d say while it is much harder to find places in the UK which are not walkable, the US has plenty of extremely walkable areas (but often you need a good income to afford them).

  11. I can say more than other people here. Seattle is walkable, yes, but in certain areas. Anything near Pike Place Market is good to be. Pike Place Market is on the shore. As you go towards into the city there will be shops as well.

    The second place to be is near the Space Needle. There are shops, museums, attractions, art and more near that area.

    I will say, however, that most Washingtonians don’t go to Seattle. Many people dislike Seattle (for the same reasons as other big cities in US). I would look into visiting smaller cities in the state as well.

  12. I don’t know about current numbers, but city of Seattle was 60% single family housing in ~2010. That means majority of residencies were detached freestanding houses. With a lot sized that varied between 0.5 acre to 1.5 acre. My friend’s house has slightly less than 1 acre and her yard and house is pretty typical. The more central (older) neighborhoods in Seattle will have smaller yards.

    I don’t drive and there’s plenty of places in Seattle I would never consider living in due to lack of transit and local grocery.

    There is a website that gives a “Walk Score” , you can punch random street address or neighborhood names into the website and see the ratings

  13. absolutely not. even many larger cities have significant problems with pedestrian infrastructure, with numerous dead zones without sidewalks.

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