What's Your Walk Score?

[theodosia]

I ran a number of errands yesterday for a Sekrit Projek, so I got out of the house and had a little social fun, though I did manage to forget that I was signed up for a class on negotiating with prospective employers -- I did the classic "look at my schedule 15 minutes after the class would have begun", ah well.

What I've been doing this morning is plug addresses into this neat website Walk Score, which will use a Google Maps mashup to give you a quantifiable score as to how many desirable elements are in quick walking distance of a certain address -- in other words, theoretically how easy it is to get around without the use of car.

This is important to me because I don't like being obliged to use my car. (I was just saying yesterday that I am using my car a lot more now that I'm unemployed, because I was always walking/taking public transit when I was working.) And I've tried to choose my apartments (and house) with a view to being able to do just that.

So it's been instructive to plug some of the addresses that I know by heart in and see what they score. 70 and above is Very Walkable, 90 and above is Walker's Paradise, 25 and under is very hard to get around, and so on.

* My current house gets a 78.
* The house I grew up in gets an 18 -- I always thought that it was isolated from anything interesting, actually.
* My aunt's house up on a country road in the Catskills? a 3!!1!
* My aunt's beach house? 31, my grandparent's 42 -- but compared to my childhood home, no wonder that they seemed a walker's paradise, AND a bunch of stores like a pharmacy and a small supermarket and a movie theatre have shut down since we spent summers with my grandma.
* Friends who live closer to Davis Square score 82 and 87 -- and by closer I mean like 1/2 mile or so.

Note that the Walk Score isn't foolproof because it doesn't take in some factors like type of walking that must be done, so it can, say, include a 4 lane highway as a walking route. But as a back of an envelope calculation, it is an intriguing tool, especially if you're looking to move somewhere and want to figure in how easy it will be to get around....

(edited to add: the choice of the song was TOTAL coincidence!)

Comments

[wesleysgirl.livejournal.com]

Interesting! My house scores a 29. It's interesting to see what it takes into account -- the nearest bookstore, .83 mi, is a tiny little Christian one that MIGHT carry a hundred books total. We do some walking, mostly to the bank, which we switched to after moving here specifically because it's only like 1/3rd of a mile away, the corner store, which isn't a practical place to shop at ALL, just good for the occasional snack and because we can walk there, and the pizza place, which has the benefit of having AWESOME pizza in addition to being locally owned and close by. Otherwise, there's very little close enough to walk to with a 6 year old, in part because the road is quite heavily trafficked and the sidewalks leave a lot to be desired.

Oh, and the gas station is close enough to walk to, LOL, but there's not much point in that!

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Definitely an interesting site!

The house I grew up in scored a 34, but it's Burlington, so it's not what one would call a metropolis. Our current place scored a 91.

[darthrami.livejournal.com]

Huh. My old apartment got a higher score than the rental house we're in now, but I would've said it was less walkable, because there's a big hill, and a lot of the roads are HIGHWAYS. Like, not fast 6-lane roads with stop lights now and then (we've got one of those now) but 8 lane highway, 395, no way to cross. But I guess b/c there's more shoved into a smaller space, it gets a (slightly) higher score -- 75 compared to 71. My work (shockingly) is 89 -- although a lot of that stuff isn't even open during the day, and S' work only got a 68, though it's in Old Town Alexandria, which is far more walkable (both in what's available and the quality ofo the walk) than anything around here.

[darthrami.livejournal.com]

...and it couldn't find my mom's address. *boggles*

Even with that, this website is damn cool.

[gchick.livejournal.com]

I found the same kinds of not-foolproofness that you note -- I got a 60 and flea got a 54 or thereabouts; I'm right by a mall and she's nearer downtown, so I have more total stores very close to me, but as close as it is it's a half-mile of rather pedestrian-hostile (no sidewalks, major intersections with no crosswalks, and so on) streets whereas hers feel more walkable.

On the other hand, my in-laws got an 8(!!!!), which both confirms my freaky anxiety whenever I'm there and tells me that walkscore is quite smart for broader distinctions. And a shiny toy!

[reginagiraffe]

Both my current house and the house I grew up in got scores of 71. But my childhood house wasn't in the middle of gang/drug territory. So... a big difference.

[ckd]

Our current place gets a 92. (Which makes sense; we've lived there for 10+ years, and never owned a car.)

[djonn]

Intriguing, though definitely imperfect -- it does indeed pick up a sprinkling of outdated business addresses, some of the bookstores it picks up appear to be of the "adult" persuasion, and one of my previous apartment addresses causes the script engine to self-destruct for no discernible reason.

Categories I'm surprised they don't include are banks and post offices (or mailbox places, like Postal Annex and UPS Store). It would also be useful, if much more complex, if the site could calculate public-transit friendliness.

But this is definitely very, very cool.

[klwilliams.livejournal.com]

My job's building has a walk score of 97, but it is in the heart of the Financial District in San Francisco.

[janni.livejournal.com]

63 here, making this the most walkable place I've lived since college.

Though I'm amused that they count the little Korean grocery down the block (neat place, I shop there, but can't get everything there); but not the Trader Joe's that's just over a mile from home. (But then, I think they just look for whatever's nearest regardless.)

[janni.livejournal.com]

And the walk score for my Mom's house is ... 0.

No wonder I was so unhappy the summer I lived there without a car!

[llennhoff.livejournal.com]

My current place gets a 77, which is reasonable - I walk to the library, to shul, and to two local groceries. The park is in most people's walking distance though I prefer not to walk that far.