A 2014 report, Foot Traffic Ahead: Ranking Walkable Urbanism in America's Largest Metros, identifies what the authors call "WalkUPs" (Wakable Urban Places) in the country's 30 largest metropolitan areas and ranks them by the percentage of office and retail space in the WalkUPs.  The report was produced by LOCUS -- a Smart Growth America coalition of national network of real estate developers and investors -- in conjunction with George Washington University's Center for Real Estate & Urban Analysis.  It is an updated version of a 2007 survey by the Brookings Institution's Metropolitan Policy Program, which compared the economic performance of metropolitan areas' walkable urban places to their automobile-oriented sub-urban counterparts.

The report concludes that metropolitan areas of greater walkability should serve as models for the future development patterns.  The report also finds that recent trends suggest significant future demand for walkable urban development, which could provide an economic foundation for the U.S. economy. The Chicago metro area ranks 5^th – behind Washington D.C., New York, Boston, and San Francisco – for its current level of walkability, but falls to 15^th when the potential for future walkability is considered.