Seattle residents bike an average of just 23 miles per year, matching the national average, and walk about 157 miles annually, according to a new national ranking that places the city 42nd among 100 large U.S. metros for miles biked per resident. The numbers might surprise anyone who assumes Seattle's reputation for bike lanes, rain jackets, and hilly commutes translates into outsized walking and biking mileage. Instead, the data suggests something more nuanced is going on beneath the surface.
The findings come from a StreetLight Data analysis reported by Axios, which found Seattle's per-resident walking and biking activity is concentrated in a relatively small geographic area even as it ranks high for activity per square mile. Boston, by contrast, ranked second nationally for walking with residents logging an average of 530 miles a year — about 1.5 miles a day — trailing only Orlando, according to a separate Axios report on the same StreetLight dataset. Orlando topped the list among all 100 large cities with 653 walking miles per resident annually, a figure the same report attributes largely to pedestrian activity around the city's tourist corridors.
New York City, meanwhile, ranked eighth nationally for walking miles per resident, with the same StreetLight-attributed reasoning suggesting that dense transit networks and nearby services may shorten the length of individual walking trips. That logic tracks with Seattle's own case: the city's transit system was ranked the fourth-best in the country by a Consumer Affairs report, a distinction that may itself help explain why Seattleites rack up fewer walking and biking miles even while relying on active transportation to get around.
Rain, Hills, and Short Trips
Rain and hills may affect how much Seattleites walk and bike.
Seattle's bike and scooter share program logged a record 10.5 million rides in 2025, a 60% jump over the prior year, according to the Seattle Department of Transportation. The agency said that if each ride replaced a car trip, the total would equal roughly 26,000 car trips per day citywide, but it does not know exactly how many car trips were replaced.
Riders Report High Satisfaction Despite Lower Mileage
Lower per-capita mileage doesn't appear to mean unhappy commuters. Commute Seattle's 2024 survey of more than 75,000 local workers and students found bike commuters reported the highest satisfaction of any travel mode, posting a +33 Net Promoter Score that beat out walking at +20, teleworking at +5, transit at +4, and driving alone, which scored a dismal -43, according to Momentum Magazine. That survey was conducted jointly with SDOT and the University of Washington.
Levy Dollars Chase Persistent Gaps
Seattle voters approved an eight-year, $1.55 billion Transportation Levy in November 2024, funneling $133.5 million toward bicycle safety and $193 million toward pedestrian safety projects, according to the Seattle City Council. The package succeeded the $930 million Move Seattle levy that expired at the end of 2024. An SDOT annual performance report released in April 2026 credited the levy's first year with more than four miles of newly built enhanced protected bike lanes, 45 leading pedestrian intervals, and 30 Safe Routes to School projects, per the Seattle Medium.
Not every gap has closed, though. Seattle's Missing Link saga drags on in Ballard, where the 1.4-mile segment of the Burke-Gilman Trail has remained stalled in litigation following a July 2026 Washington Court of Appeals decision — even as the University of Washington segment of the same trail received a $12.3 million state-funded expansion.
