Gas prices are at a record high and a new report on “walking cities” couldn’t come at a better time. Walk Score, helps people find walkable places to live and also calculates the walkability of an address by locating nearby stores, restaurants, schools, parks, etc). Walk Score measures how easy it is to live a “car free” lifestyle and just released a list of America’s top 10 most ” walkable cities”.

Some cities on the list are notorious for their “walkability”, cities like New York and Portland, Oregon, but others are not known for being commonplace for pedestrian friendly living. In the case of L.A., many of the surrounding regions are heavily car-dependent. A number of neighborhoods nearer to the city’s center are highly walkable, earning scores above 90 for walkability.

Walk Score ranks 2,508 neighborhoods in the largest 40 U.S. cities, with the goal of helping people locate housing in walkable areas. The group points out that walking is not only a great way to reduce our carbon footprint, but it also imposes important health benefits.

Walk Score offers you a map of what’s accessible and calculates a score for any property. The site launched in July 2007, and over 1 million addresses were searched in the first month.

Hopefully the increased attention on high gas prices will encourage people to seek out New Urbanism, (aka, walkability), and will encourage developers and city planners to steer away from America’s addiction to the automobile.

Here are America’s Top 10 Walkable Cities, some are fairly surprising!

1. San Francisco, CA
2. New York, NY
3. Boston, MA
4. Chicago, IL
5. Philadelphia, PA
6. Seattle, WA
7. Washington D.C.
8. Long Beach, CA
9. Los Angeles, CA
10. Portland, OR