Pop quiz: Can you name the 5 Metro stations that have the highest number of households within a half-mile walk? Here’s a hint: More riders walk to those 5 stations each morning than to just about any others in the system.

It’s not a coincidence. According to WMATA’s PlanItMetro blog, “the more people can walk to transit, the more people do walk to transit — and data across Metrorail stations prove it.”

But there’s at least one surprise: 3 of the 5 stations with the most households nearby are in Maryland or Virginia, not the District.

Households and walk ridership per Metro station. Image by WMATA.

Columbia Heights has by far the most households within walking distance. That makes sense. It’s one of DC’s densest neighborhoods, and the Metro station is right near its center.

But the number two most household-rich Metro station is Arlington’s Court House. Others in the top 5 are Ballston, Silver Spring, and Dupont Circle.

All 5 are among the 10 stations with the most riders who walk to the station each morning. The rest of the top 10 walking stations are Woodley Park, Cleveland Park, Pentagon City, Crystal City, and Bethesda.

More riders may be walking to jobs from the downtown stations, or from Rosslyn, but those are the destinations, where riders in the morning are getting off. The origin stations are the more residential ones.

All in all, Metro’s stations fit neatly along a trendline that shows a strong correlation between more households nearby and more riders arriving to stations by foot.

Even the outliers tell a story. U Street and Mount Vernon Square have the 6th and 7th highest number of households nearby, but they under perform on walking Metro ridership. One might speculate that Mount Vernon Square is so close to so many offices that more people simply walk. U Street is a little farther away, but it’s still close enough to downtown that buses and bicycles may be better options for a large portion of riders.

What else pops out as interesting?

 Cross-posted at Greater Greater Washington.