New York, NY – As cities around the world aim to reduce their carbon footprints, reducing traffic and improving mass transit are priorities like never before. In hopes of encouraging friendly competition and publicizing positive efforts made by leading US cities, a coalition of transportation advocacy groups from New York, Seattle, Chicago and San Francisco has issued their first annual Urban Transportation Report Card.

"Because of their density, cities are inherently green places to live but there is much more that can be done to reduce pollution and greenhouse gas emissions," says Transportation Alternatives Executive Director Paul Steely White, "The cities that make it easiest to get from point A to point B without a car offer the best quality of life to their residents and businesses. We are all in competition to help Americans live the greenest lifestyles possible."

The Report Card finds that New Yorkers are the least car dependent. With 53% of commuters relying on public transit, New York boasts the highest transit ridership in the country. New York, however, places last for providing bicycle racks and implementing Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) service. It also falls behind Chicago and San Francisco in bike lane infrastructure.

The report card was created by Transportation Alternatives (New York, NY, transalt.org ), the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition (sfbike.org ), the Cascade Bicycle Club (Seattle, WA, cascade.org ) and the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation (biketraffic.org).

The full report is available here (PDF).