Skyrim scholar uses geometry to determine how walkable the RPG's best cities are, and the results are terrible: "Worse than some car-centric suburbs in Texas"

Everyone loves a walkable city, even an Argonian, I'm sure. But, according to one Skyrim fan and geographic information systems (GIS) graduate student, Tamriel has some serious geospatial issues.

The grad student, Henry, recently conducted a study they posted on Substack analyzing how walkable Skyrim's major cities Solitude, Windhelm, Riften, Whiterun, and Markarth are. After converting each city's map into a graph and performing statistical analysis Henry came to a conclusion: not very walkable.

"The concept of 'walkability' can be defined in many ways," Henry writes in their study. "Generally, however, there are three key factors which shape it: density (of dwellings, jobs, public spaces, etc), functional mix (the integration of land uses), and pedestrian network structure (connectivity, density, etc)."

Other than Solitude, whose low circuity measurements make it about as efficient to stroll in as Chicago, the rest of Skyrim's cities scored "worse than some car-centric suburbs in Texas," Henry says.

"Overall, it appears that while most of Skyrim’s cities are walkable from a connectivity standpoint, they fall short at providing direct, efficient routes between residential locations and amenities," Henry observes. "I think the clear winner here is Solitude, given that it has the median Beta index and much lower average circuity. I guess the Imperial legion knows how to plan a city better than the Stormcloaks (or at least pick a better place for their headquarters)!"

I just don't know how the Stormcloaks plan to lead an insurrection without decent sidewalks…

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