Philadelphia is So Pedestrian

Every commuter's daydream is walking to work. According to the last U.S. Census, Philadelphia's Center City had the highest percentage of workers (half) who get to work on foot.

Every commuter's daydream is walking to work. According to the last U.S. Census, Philadelphia's Center City had the highest percentage of workers (half) who get to work on foot.

The closest competitor was an area of Boston/Cambridge that had the same percentage of walkers, but a smaller counted population. Following were San Francisco, Midtown Manhattan and Chicago.

The Center City District was formed in 1990 with a goal of making the area "clean, safe and attractive." That includes the little things: CCD workers say they have "dislodged more than 60,000 wads of gum from Center City Sidewalks." We're not sure how that count was accomplished, but other efforts to increase pedestrian traffic have been efforts to lower the crime rate through greater policing-the district reports crimes against persons and auto thefts decreased by 39 percent from 1997-2001.

And in a nod to the city's great historic buildings, the district sponsors an extensive series of walking architectural tours and installed the Walk!Philadelphia system of directional signs.