Zurich, Paris, London Top the Ranking of Most Pedestrian-Friendly Cities in Europe

Researchers have found out which cities in the world are the most pedestrian-friendly. The leaders are Zurich (Switzerland), Paris (France), London (UK), Milan (Italy), Copenhagen (Denmark) and Dublin (Ireland).

This is stated in a study published in the journal Nature Cities, The Guardian reports.

The researchers used open data to determine the average distance people have to walk or cycle to get to basic services such as supermarkets, schools, hospitals, and parks, and calculated the proportion of residents who have everything they need at their fingertips.

A total of 54 cities were selected for the study. It turned out that the most accessible were mid-sized European cities such as Zurich, Milan, Copenhagen and Dublin, all of which have basic services that more than 95% of residents can access within 15 minutes.

At the bottom of the ranking are sprawling North American cities with a high dependence on cars, such as San Antonio, Dallas, Atlanta and Detroit.

The authors of the study also developed an algorithm that showed how much these cities need to change to become more accessible. It turned out that Atlanta would have to relocate 80% of its infrastructure to make it accessible to residents, while Paris would only need to relocate 10%.

The researchers warn that making a city more accessible is not enough to wean residents off private cars. The Netherlands boasts one of the best cycling infrastructures in Europe, but still has more cars per capita than rural countries like Ireland and Hungary.