Photo by aspecimenlife

Over the last two weeks we’ve been called intolerant and rude (not to mention ugly and unable to drive), so it’s nice to learn that maybe we’re not totally awful.

According to the Alliance for Biking & Walking’s 2012 report, the District isn’t just good for walking and cycling, it’s the second best in the country for both.

The reports finds that amongst 51 cities, only Boston is better for walking and cycling, while we’re ahead of San Francisco, Seattle, New York and Portland. In terms of pedestrian and cyclist fatalities, we come in on the low-end of the scale — sixth lowest in the country.

TBD dug into the 248-page report and found a few more nuggets, including the fact that the city ranks seventh in terms of the percentage of people who ride to work and second in terms of those who walk. Also, men are more likely to ride bikes than women.

In related news, the City Paper found a report that claims that not only do white folks walk more than African Americans, but they also walk faster:

On average, Schneider found, white people take more trips per day overall, at 4.9 trips to non-whites’ 4.1 trips. For walking trips, they go further, traveling between 0.02 and 0.21 miles more per trip than non-whites. But white people are apparently walking faster, because they also take less time per trip, averaging 12.39 minutes to non-white-peoples’ 14.65 minutes.

Any reason why? Plenty, including the fact that white residents may be more centrally located than their African American counterparts.