This report discusses 761 walkable urban places in the United States' 30 largest metropolitan areas and their impact on social equity and educational attainment, and their economic impact on office, retail, and housing land uses.

Key findings

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"Analysis in this report "suggests that there is a potential demand for an additional 472 WalkUPs, an increase of 62 percent over the current inventory. This pent-up demand for new WalkUPs, in addition to the growth of the existing WalkUPs, would create a new economic foundation for the U.S. economy, one far more resilient than the economic foundation resulting from building drivable suburbs in the mid- to late-20th century."

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"There are metros that have achieved both high economic performance at the WalkUP and metropolitan levels and have high social equity performance, demonstrating that it is possible to “do well while doing good."

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"There has been substantial research showing that drivable sub-urbanism, i.e., sprawl, is and has been systematically subsidized by federal, state and local government, starting in the mid-20th century. This leads to the question of whether drivable sub-urban development patterns should continue to be subsidized, especially when the commercial real estate market is increasingly demanding walkable urbanism."

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