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Comment by slily | Hacker News Reader

Living in New York City, the most walkable city in the US I believe, was the unhappiest I've been in my life, and I know plenty of others who feel the same way. So, there's that.

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I think the fact that it is NYC might have a more outsized effect than it being walkable. Tokyo felt like a very walkable city, whilst still being so densely populated...in conjunction with its amazing public transport it was a wonderful experience.

Of course, I prefer walkable environments as well in the right conditions, but the headline implies that they are strictly superior, which isn't true when your society is low-trust and anti-social, and most walkable US city neighborhoods, or at least the ones that are affordable to people who are not very well off, are that. Today I live in a suburban area, and the calm and safety more than make up for the low walkability.

Absolutely. Anecdote but yesterday I was at a light on an off-ramp from a highway and a guy got out of the car next to me, and my first reaction was that he might have malicious intent(turned out he was just checking the front of his car because he may have hit something). That was definitely a low-trust moment! Walking around NYC is similar, I am trying to make sure not to get pickpocketed or worse.

In a weird way I've never considered NYC to rank highly on the "walkable" scale. There are too many other people out walking, and too many cross streets where you are constantly waiting to cross.

IMO, "walkable city" means not just that you can technically walk to a large number of places, but that you can do so relatively unimpeded.

To pipe in as a "real New Yorker" - we don't see those things as impediments :)

Were you in Manhattan or one of the other boroughs?

I suspect Manhattan (and the densest parts of the other boroughs) have enough density, business, noise to offset the benefits of being walkable.

But, I'd guess there are plenty of residential neighborhoods in NYC that are close to being "15 min cities" on their own.

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