Well, let’s start with this one: my personal, subjective, biased ranking of cities and towns which I have personally found to be at least somewhat conducive to a carless lifestyle. In other words, places where I felt good as a non-driver. 

Multiple factors involved such as the ease of getting between important spots by foot, people’s attitudes toward pedestrians, the quality of the transportation services, the perceived safety of the city, etc. My experience is often very specific and may not correspond at all to what others have experienced in those places. I’m open to discussion, obviously.

This ranking is very approximate but, for each of these places, I’ve had some rather positive things to say, as a pedestrian. In fact, my overall assessments of these places is quite positive and I have relatively little to complain about them, as a pedestrian. I guess I’ll flesh out details about each of them, later on.

Here goes. I didn’t live in either Paris, Geneva, or Chicago. But my assessment is rather positive overall.

  1. Fredericton, NB
  2. (Paris)
  3. Lausanne
  4. (Halifax) [Edit: Friday, April 11, 2008 1:25 PM]
  5. (Ann Arbor) [Edit: Friday, April 11, 2008 1:25 PM]
  6. Boston
  7. Northampton, MA
  8. Montreal
  9. (Geneva)
  10. Laval, Qc
  11. Bamako
  12. Nyon
  13. (Chicago)
  14. Bloomington, Indiana

 

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