Go up
Exploring SimplyMap Data: Walking to Work in the US
Posted on Aug 13, 2015 by Admin
In this quick SimplyMap report, we use Census data to help us identify which city in the United States has the highest percentage of residents who reported walking to work as their mode of transportation. Have any cities in mind? Let’s find out!
First, click New Ranking from the top of your SimplyMap screen.
For the variable, follow this path: Census Data » People and Households » Employment » Travel to Work » Mode.
The variable we are looking for is, “% Employment, Walked to Work, 2014”. Picture below for reference.
Click on the Locations panel and select USA as your geography. By default, your report will generate with the Analyze Data By dropdown set to USA. As a good reference point, the USA shows a total of 2.78% of residents who walk to work. Before we analyze the US by city, let’s take a quick look at the US analyzed by top 10 states:
DC coming in with the highest percentage of residents who walk to work, at 12.27%, does not seem too surprising given the relative small land area and highly dense population (over 10,000 people per square mile!). Ranked second, Alaska was surprising to us, and we would be interested in researching more about that - if you know why, feel free to leave a comment below.
Now let’s look at large cities. Switch the Analyze Data By dropdown to Cities and apply a filter to only show cities with a population greater than 100,000. Results are shown below:
At 26.37%, more than a quarter of Cambridge, MA residents walk to work! We think this might be due to Harvard and MIT being the top employers in the city and within such close proximity to each other.
Honorable mention, and rounding out the top 5:
Berkeley - 17.97%
Boston - 15.45%
Ann Arbor - 14.93%
Provo - 13.66%
That’s it for this week’s SimplyMap report. If there is a particular variable or data package you want to see more of, let us know in the comments below or send us an email or tweet.
More from SimplyAnalytics
Posted on May 02, 2016 by Admin
Inspired by a recent support desk question, this week’s SimplyMap report will demonstrate how a user would run a business search that consists of multiple names. In short, the user was at...
Posted on May 16, 2022 by Admin
Hello readers! We hope you are having a wonderful day. Today we feature a question from the help desk that we think many users would find useful. Let’s get started. The question: How can ...
Posted on Dec 02, 2019 by Admin
Hi everybody! We’re back this week with another question from our Help Desk. This time featuring SimplyAnalytics Canada. Let’s get started! Question: How can I analyze all of the PRIZM5 s...
Posted on Jul 28, 2013 by Admin
We recently discovered some interesting data on participation and attitudes towards recycling, and decided to dig a bit deeper into our Experian SimmonsLOCAL data. This data package inclu...
Posted on Aug 13, 2015 by Admin
In this quick SimplyMap report, we use Census data to help us identify which city in the United States has the highest percentage of residents who reported walking to work as their mode o...
Posted on Jan 19, 2009 by Admin
The 2009 Midwinter Meeting will be held in Denver, CO, from Jan 23–28, 2009. http://www.ala.org/midwinter The exhibits will be held Jan 23–26, 2009 at the Colorado Convention Center,...
Posted on Sep 10, 2019 by Admin
Hello readers! It’s been a minute since our last tutorial post, but you can expect to see more content on a weekly basis moving forward. “From the Help Desk” is a new feature on the blog ...
Posted on May 18, 2015 by Admin
The SimplyMap team is looking forward to visiting with customers and others at the SLA Annual Conference, coming to Boston on June 14-16. Come visit us at Booth #916, we are happy to answ...
Posted on Jun 11, 2026 by Admin
SimplyAnalytics is excited to exhibit at ALA Annual 2026 in Chicago! Visit us at Booth #4336 to meet our team, ask questions, and learn more about the latest SimplyAnalytics features and ...
Posted on Apr 23, 2018 by Admin
Hello everyone and welcome to this week’s blog. This week we will discuss how to create and utilize filters for your research. Why Use a Filter? Filters are a great way to identify target...