A new study by The George Washington University School of Business, has ranked Washington, D.C. the second most walkable city in the United States. The rankings were based on the number of “walkable urban places,” or WalkUPs. WalkUPs are basically areas with lots of office and retail space, as well as a strong “walk score,” meaning how necessary having car is to getting around the area.
The report indicated that Tysons Corner Center in McLean was a prime example of the 7th category of WalkUPs named “Redeveloped Drivable Sub-urban,” or “places originally developed as strip commercial and/or regional malls that have since urbanized.” And Reston Town Center exhibited a good example of the 8th category of WalkUps, “Greenfield or Brownfield” which are described as “WalkUPs developed on undeveloped land or reclaimed land, mainly former industrial uses.” Both Tysons’ and Reston Town Center’s scores helped Washington, DC’s overall rating. D.C. has a lot of people who walk to work: 12.1 percent, to be exact, behind only Boston. You can read the full report at www.smartgrowthamerica.org/documents/foot-traffic-ahead-2016.pdf.
