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The Honolulu Advertiser

Updated at 9:25 a.m., Thursday, March 8, 2007

Honolulu rated 14th-best walker-friendly U.S. city

Advertiser Staff

Honolulu was beat out by Madison, Wis.; Austin, Texas; and San Francisco as top cities for walker-friendly fitness.

That's the rating from Prevention magazine and the American Podiatric Medical Association after considering factors that included: safe streets, beautiful places to walk, mild weather, parks per square mile and percentage of the population that walks for exercise.

But the news in the magazine's April issue isn't all bad. Honolulu is No. 14, making it way better to hit the streets than many other cities.

The worst cities to lace up those walking shoes? Newark, N.J., came in last at No. 100 with a high crime rate, few parks and few people who take mass transit, as well as the third-smallest percentage of people who walk for exercise.

Others that rounded out the bottom of the list were Laredo, Texas, with poor air quality and the least amount of people taking mass transit; and Miami where the fifth-highest crime rate may explain why very few people walk for health.

For the full list, visit: www.prevention.com/cities