Calculate how walkable your home is 12

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1. 

   wayneluke Posted 3:56 am
   26 Jul 2007

   It seems a little off but a good start.I saw this the other day and was surprised that my location got a 57 and not so surprised my ex-wife's got a 6.
   Where I live, there is local shopping, even if it is not desireable. For groceries we have Wal-Mart Supercenter, a Food-4-Less (owned by Kroger's), a 99-cent store within a third of a mile. There are two movie theaters within half a mile. We also have a myriad of fast food from chinese buffets to your regular drive-throughs. We also have three stripmalls with smaller shops and some traditional restaruants in the same distance.
   However, its 3 miles to the library and further to any park. Across the street it is bare soil that at one time was going to be a shopping district and more houses but those projects went bankrupt during the last real-estate bubble burst. We do have a city baseball stadium about half a mile away for the local minor league baseball team. However even though the city lists it as a park, it isnt.
   What is interesting is my parents choose to live in a "recovering neighborhood" in the same city where new people are moving in and pushing crime out. The place is scary and there is always the sound of arguments with police cars constantly patrolling and helicopters overhead. However they got a 70, even though the walk-able stores include a 7-11 and a furniture store. They are closer to the library, performance city and the downtown boulevard (which the city designates as a museum) at only a mile away. Their nearest grocery store is well over two miles from their house though.

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2. 

   Corey McKrill Posted 3:57 am
   26 Jul 2007

   great for locals and visitors alikeMy house gets a 77.  I like how it lists all the local businesses that are in walking distance of the address you put in.  I've never been to some of the places it lists near my home.
   This could also be a great resource for scoping out places to stay when you travel.  Imagine checking out the website for a hostel or B&B and seeing a little icon on their homepage with their "walk score" on it...
   
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3. 

   wayneluke Posted 3:58 am
   26 Jul 2007

   just to addI should add we rarely shop at the Walmart or the Food-4-Less. Food-4-Less is always filthy and their produce is beyond ripe. The Walmart Supercenter just opened a week ago and it seems to be heading the same way. Well at least Walmart seems to be clean in the morning, just not after customers start visiting.
   The nearest whole foods store (the only one in town actually), is 4 miles away.

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4. 

   Delay And Deny Posted 5:29 am
   26 Jul 2007

   Walk. Walk. Walk Like A Man
   
   I have actually resisted moving from my current apartment on Kent East Hill because it is located close enough to stores and transit lines that if needed, I can live completely without a car -- even though I could probably get more space for the money by living further "upstream".
   We need to walk more.   It has always seemed laughable to me that we (me included) will get in our cars, and drive to the 24 Hour Fitness, so we can get out and get on a treadmill or stair climber to...well, walk!
   In all the plans regarding "transportation" we never, ever factor in walking.   The page you listed is fantastic...but do our city planners every have the courage to create systems that factor in the average distance humans can walk.
   Sure, the other-abled should have options such as door to door pickup if needed, but I have always imagined that if we could create a transportation system where we are allowed to space the stations as far apart as a mile, allowing for typical half-mile walks -- imagine how much money we could save, and imagine how much more extensible it could be!  
   
   John Bailo
   
   
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5. 

   Montanaebiker Posted 5:37 am
   26 Jul 2007

   my house scores 71 but...We have everything in our small town within a mile so we scored high on the "walkability" however...a lot of jobs here are in the next town over, 8 to 10 miles away, so definitely something else to consider. My husband and I, and a lot of people we know, all live in one town and work in the other. It's the whole dilemma of the "regular folks" being driven out of the resort town by the millionaires, and the "regular folks" moving to the next town over, which has mills and plants, and driving out the "blue collar" workers. And making everyone drive farther to work.

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6. 

   Jon Rynn Posted 5:50 am
   26 Jul 2007

   This didn't use to happen......according to James Howard Kunslter in his "Nowhere" books, one of the most important aspects of the city, or at least town centers before WWII, was exactly that the "help", that is, the workers, could live in town, over stores, and walk or take a streetcar to work.  Those over-the-store apartments were cheaper.  That's why mixed use is not only important in terms of mixing up types of buildings, but also mixing up the uses of each building.  But at least you get to walk around part of the time, unlike much of America.

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7. 

   Andrew Dessler Posted 8:15 am
   26 Jul 2007

   my house scores a 3probably pretty typical for Texas
   
   

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8. 

   JMG Posted 2:51 pm
   26 Jul 2007

   Very cool shopping featureThis is cool -- we're thinking about getting out of an apartment now that the housing bubble is collapsing and the prices are coming down.  This is a nice tool for comparing different addresses.  I'm committed to being ready for car-lite or car-free living, and this site can help
   
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9. 

   maybee Posted 12:50 am
   30 Jul 2007

   walkabilityi was surprised at the high score my house received- what google doesn't know is that the one mile walk for me & my neighbors is up and down very steep hills - not to mention the long winters with no one shoveling their sidewalks! Its a great tool, but the real picture is a lot more complicated - plus many great small businesses (including mine!) not on the list.

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10. 

    Quinn Posted 3:10 pm
    30 Jul 2007

    Got a 0That's what happens when you live on an island and have to take a ferry to civilization.

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11. 

    ndunne Posted 5:30 pm
    30 Jul 2007

    Nancy Sinatra's BootsOnly scored a 79! What's with that?
    
    NJD

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12. 

    zacaroni Posted 11:42 pm
    30 Jul 2007

    ridiculousThis test is so dumb.  Calculating a walk score based on your house's proximity to stores assumes that you shop at those stores, or that you would go there in the first place.  I live within a half-mile of a hospital, a library, an elementary school, a high school, an organic co-op, a number of local restaurants, and my work.  I never drive anywhere.  My score was in the 60s.  Explain that one!

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