Philly is 7th in nation for access to jobs by public transit, walking

Philly has long been a city driven by, well, drivers. A majority of its workforce commute to their jobs by car, and a majority of residents in general are car-owners. Still, the city remains one of the top metros in the U.S. for job accessibility by transit.

Philadelphia is seventh in the nation when it comes to access to jobs by public transportation and walking, according to a new report issued by the University of Minnesota’s Accessibility Observatory called “Access Across America: Transit 2016.”

For the study, researchers came up with their accessibility rankings by looking at commute times via public transportation between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m. in the 49 biggest U.S. metros last year. Jobs that were reachable within 10 minutes carried the most weight.

In Philadelphia, they found that of the estimated 2.7 million total jobs, just 1,127 can be reached within 10 minutes. Nearly 200,000 can be reached by public transit or walking in 60 minutes.

via “Access Across America: Transit 2016”

Although the top 10 ranking of U.S. metros remained unchanged from last year, Philadelphia did experience a slight increase in its accessibility rate, rising by 1.59 percent between 2015 and 2016.

Here’s the full top 10 ranking, plus a map that shows 30-minute accessibility values in Philly broken down by Census tracts. Light colors mean that fewer jobs can be accessed in 30 minutes. Dark colors mean more jobs are accessible within a half hour.

1. New York
2. San Francisco
3. Chicago
4. Washington
5. Los Angeles
6. Boston
7. Philadelphia
8. Seattle
9. San Jose
10. Denver

• Access Across America: Transit 2016 [Official]