There is no doubt that Houston is a car town.  Our fair city was built around the car.  Only recently, have we started to create neighborhoods and communities, such as the Washington Corridor/Rice Military and Midtown, that are more dense and walkable. Despite this reality, the good news is we are more walkable than Dallas. Yes, those Yankee Cosmopolitans up in Dallas apparently have less walkable communities than Houston.  Thanks to Nate Berg at Planetizen for breaking down the numbers from Walk Score, a website that rates the walkability of residential neighborhoods and specific addresses through a simple 0-100 scoring system.  Here’s a chart that shows how Houston stands up against other cities, including Dallas.
City Population City Wide Walkscore
San Francisco 815358 85
New York 8391881 84
Boston 645169 79
Philadelphia 1547297 74
Chicago 2851268 74
Seattle 616627 72
Washington D.C. 599657 71
Portland 566143 67
Los Angeles 3831868 67
Long Beach 462604 66
Baltimore 637418 65
Denver 610345 64
Milwaukee 605013 60
San Diego 1306300 56
San Jose 964695 55
Las Vegas 567641 54
Sacramento 466676 54
Atlanta 540922 53
Fresno 479918 52
Omaha 454731 52
Albuquerque 529219 52
Austin 786386 51
Houston 2257926 51
Columbus 769332 51
Detroit 910921 51
Tucson 543910 50
Dallas 1299542 49
Phoenix 1593659 49
Mesa 467157 47
San Antonio 1373668 44
Louisville 566503 43
Fort Worth 727577 43
Kansas City 482299 42
El Paso 620456 42
Oklahoma City 560333 42
Indianapolis 807584 41
Memphis 676640 41
Nashville 605473 39
Charlotte 704422 39
Jacksonville 813518 36

 

Here’s how Houston’s neighborhoods rates on Walkscore.com’s walkability scale.  You can find maps of these neighborhood and get your own WalkScore at WalkScore.com.
Rank Neighboorhood Score
1 Midtown 85
2 Montrose 84
3 Downtown 82
4 River Oaks 77
5 Rice Village 73
6 Galleria-Uptown 70
7 Rice Military 70
8 Westchase 65
9 Greater Heights 64
10 West Houston 59
11 Medical Center 58
12 Bellaire 56
13 East End 55
14 Spring Branch 54
15 North 51
16 Meyerland 50
17 Sugar Land 49
18 Southeast 47
19 Northwest 47
20 Pasedena 42
21 Northeast 40
22 Southwest 35
23 Far Northeast 30