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- Center City
How walkable is Center City?
By Oscar Higson-SpenceUpdated
Center City has a walkability score of 99 out of 100 across the 1.4 km around its centre, which makes it a Walker's Paradise, where daily errands do not require a car. It is the 2nd most walkable of 5 neighbourhoods ranked in Philadelphia, which scores 89 as a whole.
What's within walking distance
4,558 shops, restaurants, parks and other everyday places are mapped within a 30 minute walk of the centre of Center City. The nearest grocery is 15th & Market, about 3 minutes away on foot. Every category earns full or nearly full points.
- Trader Joe's4 min
- Market East Philadelphia5 min
- Manhattan Bagel1 min
- Sals Pizza Randa2 min
- Lord & Taylor1 min
- 7-Eleven2 min
- Passero's Coffee Roasters2 min
- Dunkin'2 min
- Citizens Bank3 min
- United Bancshares Inc3 min
- Love Park3 min
- Cret Park6 min
- Marvin's Education Services3 min
- Chesterbrook Academy Preschool4 min
- PAFA Library6 min
- Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Library (Quaker PYM Library)7 min
- Philadelphia museum of Arts2 min
- Philadelphia Film Center3 min
Measured from the mapped centre of Center City at 39.9524, -75.1636. Walking times assume 80 m per minute along an estimated street route.
Street layout
Within 800 m of the centre there are about 146 street intersections per km², and blocks average 81 m long. That is a well-connected street grid, so the score is not reduced.
Walkability across Center City
- 90+
- 70–89
- 50–69
- 25–49
- 0–24
Each hexagon is the score at a point across the 1.4 km around the centre of Center City. Rings mark 700 m and 1.4 km from the centre. Gaps are water or land without streets.
Nearby neighbourhoods in Philadelphia
| Neighbourhood | Distance | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Chinatown | 750 m | 99 |
| Society Hill | 1.5 km | 98 |
| Fishtown | 3.7 km | 97 |
| Germantown | 9.3 km | 79 |
See every neighbourhood ranked on the Philadelphia page.
Questions about walking in Center City
Is Center City walkable?
Yes. Center City in Philadelphia has a walkability score of 99 out of 100 across the 1.4 km around its centre, which makes it a Walker's Paradise, where daily errands do not require a car.
Is Center City more walkable than the rest of Philadelphia?
Center City is more walkable than Philadelphia as a whole: it scores 99, against 89 for the 5 km around Philadelphia's centre. It ranks 2nd of the 5 Philadelphia neighbourhoods on How Walkable.
What are the most walkable neighbourhoods in Philadelphia?
Of the 5 Philadelphia neighbourhoods on How Walkable, the most walkable are Chinatown (99), Center City (99) and Society Hill (98).
How is the walkability score of Center City calculated?
The score counts groceries, restaurants, shops, cafés, banks, parks, schools, libraries and cultural venues within a 30 minute walk, gives nearer places more weight, and deducts up to 20% where streets are sparse or blocks are long. For Center City it is the average of 61 points spread evenly across the 1.4 km around its mapped centre, leaving out water and land without streets, using open map data from Overture Maps and OpenStreetMap.
Scores follow a published walkability method, explained in the methodology. Neighbourhood position from Overture Maps, name from Wikidata.