Yesterday, PlanItMetro posted maps showing what’s within walking distance of each Metro station. Check them out (and maybe read up on what walk sheds are and how they differ across the region), then take our quiz to test what you know.

A map of the area around the Columbia Heights Metro station that’s easily walkable. Images from WMATA.

1. Which of these stations has the most jobs within walking distance?

McLean

U Street

Pentagon City

Rockville

2. Which of these stations has the fewest jobs within walking distance?

Bethesda

Medical Center

Ballston

Federal Triangle

3. Which of these stations has the most jobs that are nearby, but not within walking distance?

Van Ness

Glenmont

West Falls Church

Franconia-Springfield

4. Which of these stations has the most households within walking distance?

Dupont Circle

Silver Spring

Columbia Heights

Court House

5. Which of these stations has the fewest households within walking distance?

Friendship Heights

Pentagon City

Crystal City

Georgia Avenue-Petworth

6. How many households live within walking distance of Metro?

95,322

190,631

321,240

458,273

7. Which of these stations has the lowest Walk Score?

Morgan Boulevard

Fort Totten

Arlington Cemetery

Van Dorn Street

8. Which of these areas has the smallest area within walking distance?

West Hyattsville

Southern Avenue

National Airport

Landover

Answers

1. U Street might not have many high-rise office buildings, but the medium-density neighborhood does have 9,034 jobs within walking distance. Logan Circle’s density isn’t just for residents: its lack of parking lots and high street connectivity mean that it also has plenty of economic opportunities nearby.

2. Federal Triangle, the very heart of the federal bureaucracy that built Metro to bring commuters into the city, has fewer jobs nearby than the three big edge cities it’s grouped with. (That’s partially because PlanItMetro’s assessment is for non-overlapping walk sheds. This is why Federal Triangle has so few jobs: they’re assigned to neighboring sheds.) Medical Center may not look like much from Wisconsin Avenue, but its 32,473 nearby jobs put it in a league with several Downtown DC stations.

3. At Franconia-Springfield, 92% of the nearby jobs aren’t within walking distance. Springfield Town Center is beyond a half-mile walk, and the new FBI headquarters site even the site Virginia is promoting for the FBI is cut off from the station by a ravine. (At Branch Avenue, 96% of nearby jobs are outside the walk shed.)

Franconia-Springfield walk shed.

4. Columbia Heights just edges out Dupont Circle for this title, 10,842 to 10,636. Relatively low-rise Court House has the highest household concentration outside the District, with 8,100 within walking distance.

5. It’s Friendship Heights, although all of these have between 4,071 and 4,623 households within walking distance. High rises don’t always mean high residential density, especially if there are lots of offices and shops mixed in. Crystal City probably has a higher density, but its walk shed is also constrained by the George Washington Parkway.

6. 190,631. Contrary to what those ubiquitous “Steps to Metro!” real-estate listings might tell you, just 9% of the 2,091,301 households in the metro area live within a ten-minute walk of Metro.

7. Morgan Boulevard has a paltry Walk Score of 6. Even Arlington Cemetery’s is somehow 15. Twenty five Metro stations are in locations with a Walk Score that’s “car-dependent,” and just 30 are in places deemed a “Walker’s Paradise.”

8. Landover. Hemmed in by a railroad and US 50 on one side and by its own parking lot and an industrial park on the other, its walk shed covers a mere 80 acres. That’s not fair to the almost 1,000 households, mostly on the other side of 50, who are less than half a mile away but can’t easily reach the station.

Landover walk shed.

How did you do?

0-3 correct: You’re a Metro Newbie! While you’re playing #WhichWMATA, step outside those stations and explore!

4-6 correct: You’re a Metro Explorer! You’ve walked around many of Metro’s stations, and always want to see more!

7-8 correct: You’re a Metro Voyager! Are you sure you didn’t download that 113-megabyte Atlas and take this quiz open-book?

Payton Chung, LEED AP ND, CNUa, sees the promises and perils of planning every day as a resident of the Southwest Urban Renewal Area. He first addressed a city council about smart growth in 1996, accidentally authored Chicago’s inclusionary housing law, and blogs at west north. He currently serves as treasurer of GGWash's Board of Directors.