The 10 Surprising (?) US Cities Where People Drive the Least

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Which ten US urbanized areas experience the least vehicle travel per capita, and why? As they say...let's get into it.

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[CityNerd]

Don't forget -- if you found my sales pitch incredibly convincing (and who wouldn't), make sure you use my link to get an additional month (and help the channel!)

[dwaynerichardson]

Retired lifelong New Yorker, I've used your videos to help choose what city to move to. My criteria is good public transportation, walkability, diversity and affordable housing. My choices are narrowed down to Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and the outskirts of DC. Thank you for the information you provided. It helped me immensely.

[FAKETV]

I personally think providence is such a gem of a city because it has the street design of hundreds of years ago. They messed it up with the freeways and other roads for sure but the bones are still there

[alialiyev]

13. Seattle
12. Washington
11. Los Angeles
10. Sacramento 3:53
9. San Jose 4:45
8. Chicago 5:15
7. Providence 5:45
6. Pittsburgh 6:23
5. San Francisco 6:55
4. Portland 7:31
3. Philadelphia 8:27
2. New York 10:31
1. San Juan 11:11

[Kaigotitright]

I live in providence! It’s small in size and I bike everywhere. The neighborhoods are super walkable and downtown is especially human scaled. Definitely one of the big benefits of it is the northeast corridor and MBTA access to boston at the rail station, which sits just next to the Kennedy plaza bus hub.

[jacksonshook]

I think one of the things from Sacramento is that they had been overlooked for several years by many people meaning they avoided sprawling development, however now they are growing due to the exodus of the Bay Area and have been placed in a position where they can grow much more sustainably than other cities in California did in the 70s and 80s

[JeremyLu]

I like the part where you said Houston 10 times

[GraniteJet]

I've lived in Pittsburgh the past five years. I think it's criminally underrated when it comes to urbanism. The area between the two rivers is one where it feels so much easier and convenient to walk, bus, or bike than drive. It's a city that showed me the potential that buses have.

[seanmobb]

Providence: the local saying is that "anything further than 15 minutes away is a day trip, you better pack a lunch!" It's a very compact, walkable and bike able town (more so than Boston). If it were not for the large amount of commuters to the large metro to the north, I bet the VMT numbers would actually look way better and may even push the town to the top 3

[brianto]

Providence, RI is lovely. I lived in College Hill. I met my wife there, my brother moved there in 1985 at my invitation and he never left. I truly enjoyed living there. I also lived in Philadelphia and loved the Chestnut Hill neighborhood. I'm moving back to NYC where I grew up.

[ChosenDrums]

I’m actually from San Juan and let me tell you, you still need a car for basically everything. But because everything is closer, you end up driving fewer miles. Lots of people live in apartments and condos and even the SFHs are on smaller lots and packed closer together, which leads to denser cities and everything being conveniently close.

[TheSlizzap]

Thanks for another installment of PittsburghNerd. Always a pleasure.

[guitardude]

Geography is definitely a contributing factor in Pittsburgh as well! Our rivers, hills and mountains did a great job of keeping us very dense and contained

[mormardet]

Current Brown University student, I feel like it's a combination of the age of the city and its surrounding suburbs like you said, but also the fact that the city itself is very compact. Many people also commute to Boston for work via MBTA and Amtrak. RIPTA is pretty good for what it does, too; buses go where people want to go with an alright schedule, so most of the buses I've been on have been pretty full.

Glad to see Providence on here and hope it appears on more lists as it's really a great, unique city!

[itmightbeciaran]

Providence is one of those cities that looks way more carved up on a map than it actually feels in real life. It has quite a vibrant downtown which is well connected to nearby neighborhoods, and a lot of the major highways are sunken, which makes them feel like less of a barrier when you're actually out in the city.

All that said, I'm kind of surprised that Boston didn't make the list, given how physically compact it is. It could be a difference in how the urbanized area is measured, but for how notoriously congested Boston's roads are, most of the trips aren't actually that long in terms of distance.

[hoffnung]

Do you have a video on the top 10 public transit projects you are the most optimistic about? IT would be great to see what to look forward and what cities might improve.

[BobbyT.]

As a lifelong Pittsburgher I’m always happy to see my city on these lists. Pittsburgh definitely gets overlooked by many especially by the locals here, there’s two kinds of people here you either bleed black and gold and love the city or you’re the kind of person who hates it here and is always complaining about the city. I love it here and always defend it, Pittsburgh has so much to offer in my opinion especially for its size. Anyways just appreciate to see that some people actually do give it recognition for some of its best qualities.

[kuni]

My theories on Providence and LA:

Providence: A lot of people living here are just commuters to the Boston area who can't afford to live there. Since rail access between providence and Boston is pretty good that makes the VMT very low since otherwise Providence is pretty compact.

LA: People actually living in and traveling within LA actually have alright options to get around their city besides driving, and it's slowly getting better and better. Since your list didn't count people from nearby metro areas driving in, LA's VMT ends up lower than expected.

[kacamac]

Providence resident here, lived car free here 10 years now. The city is very walkable and dense, good bus system, great access to Boston, CT and NYC via train right downtown. I feel like we need some light rail or trams cause some of the buses get super packed but other than that idk, it just feels so easy to live here carfree. Lots of stuff in walking distance, the city is mostly pleasant to walk around with plenty of urban trees. At least in the better neighborhoods. Idk, I mostly walk and take the bus. Don't own a bike and don't really use the rentable bikes or scooters.

[MrMasterprocrastinat]

Please do an in-depth dive on Oregon's UGB system! I don't hear people talk about it enough, and I've heard a worryingly large number of people in Oregon actually try to blame UGBs for housing unaffordability here.

In a sense the criticism has a point - if towns aren't allowed to sprawl but they simultaneously try to limit urban infill, there's really nowhere for new supply to be added - but the whole point of a UGB is to incentivize infill as the easier and cheaper option! Oregon's UGB rules and statewide planning goals are awesome for promoting infill and preserving our farms and natural areas. They don't get near the love they should.