Most walkable cities

Walkability decides more of your budget than it looks. Where errands, work and school are a walk or a short tram ride away, a car is optional — and dropping it removes a payment, insurance, fuel, parking and maintenance from the monthly total. In a car-dependent city that same money is simply part of the cost of living, whatever the rent looks like.

The score below runs 0–100 and answers one question: how much of everyday life can you reach on foot? Dense, mixed-use centres with short blocks and shops at street level score high; cities where housing, work and shopping sit in separate zones score low. Public transport is scored separately, so a city can be walkable in its core and still have thin transit — or the reverse.

Tokyo

Every city page pairs the two into a car-free score and says whether living without a car there is realistic, alongside that city's transport cost index (US average = 100). Read it together with rent: the cheap suburb stops being cheap once it needs a car, and a pricier walkable centre can come out ahead.