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.

I 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.

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.

...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.

probably pretty typical for Texas

This 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

Save the world: Reduce greenhouse gas emissions 5% annually.

i 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.

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

Only scored a 79! What's with that?

NJD

This 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!