From Portland Afoot

New York City is the largest city in the United States. It typically has the nation's lowest traffic fatality rate on a per-capita basis, though Portland beat it by this measure in 2008.

Former Metro President David Bragdon moved to his original hometown of New York City in 2010 to work for Mayor Michael Bloomberg, saying New York was working to improve itself while his adopted city of Portland seemed self-congratulatory and complacent.

In terms of ridership per capita and expenditures per boarding ride, New York City has the best transit system in the country by a wide margin. It's the U.S. city with by far the most car-free and low-car residents. This makes it one of the few metro areas that has more public transit trips per capita than Portland.

[edit] Pedestrian commuting rates

New York's lowest-income workers are twice as likely to walk to work as middle-income workers.

Walking to work is about twice as common in New York as in Portland. It's also less concentrated among people in poverty, with New York's lowest-income workers twice as likely to walk to work as middle-income workers.

In Portland and also in Boston, the lowest-paid workers are about three times as likely to walk to work.