Ranking Lists are Nonsense

City rankings are a bunch of nonsense. Most livable city is always dependent on personal preferences and the interpretation of metrics that can be hard to compare apples to apples between cities. Top cities to buy a home and lists like it pop out at us from websites and on social media every day.

Long ago during the early days of the Surface Transportation Policy Project, I heard from comms folks that lists were a good way to get media attention to a certain policy or problem within the transportation world. Newspapers loved a good list because the could get people to push back on elected officials when they were ranked really low, or give them kudos when they were ranked really high.

We know that is still the case now as Inrix and the Texas Transportation Institute create lists on congestion and commutes (that often don’t include transit outcomes) that show up what seems like every six months in papers across the country.

Don’t get me wrong I love a good top ten list and enjoy the debate, but that’s all they are meant to do is generate debate. The best city for restaurants isn’t going to be the same for everyone, nor is the city with the best bike infrastructure if it doesn’t exist where you live.

So I’m not asking for folks to give up on “best of” lists because they can be fun, but maybe turn a more critical eye to them when you see one. Look at the underlying data and then think about what the creator of the list is trying to say or accomplish. Or if you want to get some attention to further the movement for active transportation, make your own.

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