In 11 American cities where you don’t need a car to live in, we’ll provide a great list of the best cities to live when there’s no car to be had.
It’s hard for us living in more rural areas to believe, but some people who live in these cities literally don’t have cars. Not because they wrecked theirs, just because they’ve never needed one. The kids don’t scramble to get their license as soon as they’re old enough, and hardly anyone has a garage.
As unbelievable as this may sound, it also seems pretty desirable as well. Imagine never having to pay for gas, never having to go to the mechanic, never having to worry about a flat tire, and never getting lost when your GPS randomly goes haywire.
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People love walkable cities, and not only because it means not worrying about a car. It also means more exercise. Walking is very beneficial to health, and biking is even more so. Or, even if you take a taxi or subway, you have to walk a little to get one.
It allows for more social interaction with the people in your city, whether through passing them on the street or having a chat on the metro. Plus, you get to enjoy the beauty of your city more as well. It’s very true that walkers and bikers notice their surroundings much more than drivers do.
Or, maybe you just want to go on a vacation without the added cost of a car rental. These cities are great summer hotspot options, and you’ll not only come back more relaxed, but tanner and skinnier too. (For more great walkable locations, see also 11 Best Places to Visit in the USA Without a Car.)
We utilized a great resource to rank this article, a site called Walk Score. You can type in literally any place on the planet and it will give you its walk score, and bike and transit score if applicable. A walk score is simply a gauge of how easy it is to walk from place to place within a city. 100 is the highest possible score, but only a few places on the earth match that (one of them is on this list). We took this article on MSN and calculated each listed city’s score. The results are below, with the highest scores at the bottom of the list.
Visit the Walk Score website for more specifics about how the scoring works, but otherwise here’s our list of American cities where you don’t need a car to live in. Enjoy!
11. Seattle, Washington
walk score: 73, bike score: 63, transit score: 57
First on our list is this Pacific treasure, filled with awe-striking views, a fancy library and so much coffee.
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