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 Jun 21, 2022 by Admin
Hello readers! We hope you’re having a great day. Today we are featuring 5 commonly asked questions about the American Community Survey dataset that’s available to all customers in Simply...
Posted on Jul 30, 2015 by Admin
One great feature within SimplyMap is the ability to track the same variable across multiple years. In this report, we will track the percentage of households in the US ordering items fro...
Posted on Jun 05, 2025 by Admin
We’re excited to announce that SimplyAnalytics will be exhibiting at the American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference in Philadelphia! We’re thrilled to showcase how SimplyAnalyti...
Posted on Dec 15, 2014 by Admin
Custom Locations allow SimplyMap users to combine several locations into one larger region. For example, you can use this feature to combine three adjacent ZIP Codes to create your study ...
Posted on Apr 18, 2008 by Admin
A team of librarians at Drexel University has developed a detailed poster to introduce SimplyMap as a new research tool for the student body. The poster was launched on Drexel Research Da...
Posted on Feb 24, 2023 by Admin
We are excited to attend SCELCapalooza 2023, a three-day conference for academic and research librarians in Southern California. The Vendor Day showcase will take place on March 1st, 2023...
Posted on Oct 22, 2008 by Admin
Excerpt from University of Iowa Library blog: In your marketing class, you may be developing a marketing plan for a pre-made meals restaurant specializing in vegetarian menus in Chicagola...
Posted on Mar 04, 2020 by Admin
Come meet the SimplyAnalytics team at the 15th annual Electronic Resources and Libraries conference, held at the AT&T Hotel & Conference Center in Austin, TX. We will be exhibitin...
Posted on Nov 22, 2016 by Admin
We will be exhibiting at ALA Midwinter in Atlanta, Georgia in January. You can find the GRI team at Booth 1155, where we will be catching up with customers old and new, and sharing some e...
Posted on Feb 24, 2019 by Admin
We will be exhibiting at SCELC* Vendor Day on March 14th. Visit us at table 510 and attend one of our two sessions demonstrating SimplyAnalytics. The presentations will highlight newly av...