In an award you may never have considered, Emporia has been named as the state’s most walkable city — just in time for the huge influx of people in town for Unbound Gravel.
Walkscore.com rated Emporia with a 45 score out of 100. Main Street Director Casey Woods says there is normally a lot of pedestrian traffic in downtown.
Walkscore gives points based on distance to different amenities, with more points for amenities within a 5-minute walk and no points given for walks of 30 minutes or more. The website also measures population density and road metrics through data sources like the US Census, Factual, Google, Great Schools, Loxaleze and Open Street Map.
Woods says this draws attention to the easy access noted in downtown Emporia, which can lead to increased traffic for homegrown businesses.
Woods says walkability is good for local businesses, especially with over 10,000 people in Emporia for Unbound this week.
Following Emporia on the walkable city list are:
*2. Prairie Village
*3. Liberal and Lawrence
*5. Hays, Manhattan and Salina
Emporia ties for 9th with Salina on the list of most bikeable places in Kansas. Lawrence is at the top of that list. That scoring matrix involves bike infrastructure ratings for things like lanes, trails, hills, destinations and “road connectivity” as well as the number of cycling commuters.
