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Rating

Car-Light Living

Scale55-100

Higher values are better.

About This Ranking

Goal

Highlight places where residents demonstrably live with less driving and that behavior is supported by a strong walking environment, useful transit structure, or both.

Sources

Data behind the rating

4 sources

2020–2024 U.S. Census ACS 5-Year — Commuting & Vehicles

2020–2024 estimates; released January 29, 2026
Data
Place-level counts of workers commuting by car, truck, or van, driving alone, transit, walking, biking, and working from home, plus households with zero or one vehicle available.
What it tells us
Shows commute-to-work behavior and household vehicle availability, which approximate how practical daily life may be with less driving.

EPA National Walkability Index and Smart Location Database

2021 release; 2017 employment, 2018 population, and 2019 block-group geography
Data
2019 Census block-group evidence for intersection density, transit proximity, employment and household mix, and activity density, population-weighted across each place boundary.
What it tells us
Describes the built environment at block-group scale; it is nationally relative and is not a current parcel-level sidewalk, destination, or street-safety inventory.

EPA Smart Location Database — Transit Accessibility

2021 release; 2020 transit schedules, 2018 population, and 2019 block-group geography
Data
2020 GTFS-based block-group stop walking distance, aggregate evening-peak scheduled frequency, and employment access to fixed-guideway transit, population-weighted across each place boundary.
What it tells us
Describes historic place-wide scheduled transit supply and proximity; it is not a live timetable, reliability, fare, travel-time, or accessibility feed.
Data
Current mapped public-transit stop points and reported modes used only as a limited positive corroboration and as a coverage fallback when EPA transit fields are absent.
What it tells us
Checks whether current stops are near the place representative point, including premium rail and ferry modes, but not how often or reliably service runs.

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