Exploring SimplyMap Data: Walking to Work in the US
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 Jan 18, 2009 by Admin
Michigan State University is offering their users a basic introduction to using SimplyMap. The 1.5 hour session will cover the basics of how to use SimplyMap to create maps and reports u...
Posted on May 06, 2013 by Admin
We will be exhibiting at ALA 2013 at McCormick Place in Chicago, IL, June 28-July 1. The ALA Annual Conference programs, updates, conversations, and other events cover all of the key issu...
Posted on Feb 13, 2015 by Admin
In this week’s report exploring SimplyMap data, we want to find out where America’s remote workers reside. To find this, we can tap into the Census data in SimplyMap. The specific variabl...
Posted on Feb 19, 2016 by Admin
Drop by booth #857 at PLA 2016 to meet the SimplyMap team and learn more about the features and functions behind SimplyMap. Have a Ghirardelli Chocolate while we present SimplyMap and off...
Posted on Feb 20, 2018 by Admin
We are looking forward to attending the annual SCELC (Statewide California Electronic Library Consortium) Vendor day, at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles on March 8th. In additi...
Posted on Jun 02, 2017 by Admin
We will be exhibiting at SLA in Phoenix, AZ on June 18th-20th. You can find the SimplyAnalytics team at Booth #905. Stop by and check out our groundbreaking new interface, have a chocolat...
Posted on Mar 11, 2024 by Admin
We're thrilled to announce that SimplyAnalytics will be exhibiting at the ALA Annual Conference in San Diego! We can't wait to connect with library professionals, share insights, and show...
Posted on Jun 21, 2019 by Admin
Come visit the SimplyAnalytics booth (#3010) at the upcoming ALA 2019 show in Washington, D.C.! Our team will be on hand offering quick demos of SimplyAnalytics, answering questions and s...
Posted on Jan 29, 2016 by Admin
In a previous blog entry, we highlighted the benefits of having multiple years of data available for the same variable. This allows users to identify trends over time. Keeping with the sa...



