Indianapolis

The 5 Cities Where It’s Easiest — and Hardest — to Walk to the Grocery Store

Walk Score has put together a new ranking of the best and worst American cities for walkable access to food. The above visualization contrasts New York, city with the best access, and Indianapolis, which brought up the rear in Walk Score's ratings.

By Angie Schmitt

12:37 PM EDT on March 27, 2014

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BjrR2dFCMAARlvX-1 — New York came in at the top of Walk Score’s ranking of cities where people can walk to buy groceries. Image: Walk Score

Walk Score used its algorithm to cross-reference millions of walking routes with its database of grocery store locations. Then it ranked cities with populations over 500,000 according to the share of residents who can walk to a grocery store in five minutes. Here are the top five:

1	New York	72%
2	San Francisco	59%
3	Philadelphia	57%
4	Boston	45%
5	Washington D.C.	41%

Walk Score also ranked the places where the lowest share of residents can walk to a grocery store in five minutes:

1	Indianapolis	5%
2	Oklahoma City	5%
3	Charlotte	6%
4	Tucson	6%
5	Albuquerque	7%

Cities including San Jose, California, are using tools from Walk Score to examine and address local food access issues. Walk Score says it welcomes inquiries from planners who would like to see the results of their city.

Angie Schmitt

Angie is a Cleveland-based writer with a background in planning and newspaper reporting. She has been writing about cities for Streetsblog for six years.

Indianapolis | New York

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