Walkability

[mia]

Find the "walkability" score for any address.
http://www.walkscore.com/walkable-neighborhoods.shtml



Picture a walkable neighborhood. You lose weight each time you walk to the grocery store. You stumble home from last call without waiting for a cab. You spend less money on your car—or you don't own a car. When you shop, you support your local economy. You talk to your neighbors.

What makes a neighborhood walkable?
A center: Walkable neighborhoods have a discernable center, whether it's a shopping district, a main street, or a public space.
Density: The neighborhood is compact enough for local businesses to flourish and for public transportation to run frequently.
Mixed income, mixed use: Housing is provided for everyone who works in the neighborhood: young and old, singles and families, rich and poor. Businesses and residences are located near each other....



My urban neighborhood rates a 94. I grew up far away from "downtown". It was a long bus ride to get to any stores and then even farther to visit the heart of the city.

I'm enjoying being within walking distance of basic necessities now, plus I love the mix of cultures and ages.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. I live in the country

but only a block from my place of work--which is down the mountain a piece. A nice workout going to and from work.

[mia]

2. Sounds wonderful.

The downside of my location is thet I'm 20 miles from my main job and public transportation would take 2.5 hours each way.

[yellowdogintexas]

3. I am about 10 from my job and the bus commute is 1 hour, counting getting to

the bus stop.
LOL the nearest park and ride is half way to work, why bother, you know?


Times like these, I really miss living in Boston.

[Warpy]

12. I'm still looking for the T stations here in NM

I mean, it's a city, they've got to have subways somewhere!

That's what I miss about Boston.

[elizfeelinggreat]

4. That site is great!

It also helps you see how close things are (when you've convinced yourself they're too far to walk, LOL!)

My address was only about halfway on the scale but I have more within easy walking distance than I thought!

[yellowdogintexas]

5. mine is a 54 but it is bogus because the Winn Dixie that was .34 mile away

no longer exists, and several other of the listed items are either gone or relocated. Needs updating.

and I wouldn't classify a paint store as a hardware store, technically.

[mia]

9. My location listed a library that was incorrectly mapped.

Rather than a few blocks away, it's actually more than 20. Walkable, but not around the corner.

[rainbow4321]

20. Mine is 65

But, like you said with the places "near" you, the movie theater by me they listed is closed. The closest theater is the one my daughter works at and that, at best, is a 40 minute walk (one way)...down a long stretch of an unlit road.
And the "bookstore" that they say I can walk to: is a comic bookstore.

Our mass transit system sucks. What would be a 20 minute drive in my car to, say, the Angelika Theater across town would be well over an hour bus ride. It's great if you only wanna take the bus to the train station to go into Dallas, otherwise the system within our city sucks.
For a city that has 250,000 people, you'd think that they would put in place a system where you could hop on a bus to take a quick trip to a restaurant or movie theater, etc..

[yellowdogintexas]

21. Arlington? The largest city in the US without public transportation?

Seriously, I love the TRE when I want to go to Dallas for museum hopping, or other such. But the ride is long because of the route. I will be very happy if we ever get the direct route paralleling I-30 by train. That would almost be enough to make me work in Dallas.

[ColbertWatcher]

23. I'd argue that parts of LA qualifies as not having public transportation! n/t

[rainbow4321]

24. I'm in Plano.

I live 1/2 mile from a Park&Ride lightrail station so my daughter drops me off each morning and I take the train into Dallas. That part works out great. Has saved me lots of gas $$, we survive on having one car (she drives to/from school so I take mass trans to/from Dallas).

When I got an idea to try and maybe take the DART bus that goes by my neighborhood over to West Plano (Angelika)..not so great. The trip would have been over an hour, close to 1.5 hours, I believe, because of the indirect route it takes to get there. In a car, it takes me 20 minutes.
Get on the bus to go to the local theater where my kid works..also not available.
So while our city may "have" DART, good luck to those of us thinking "I'll leave the car at home and just hop on the bus". The routes are so indirect and depending on what bus stop you go to when you want to get on the bus...the time spent at the bus stop alone will be longer than if you got in your car and drove to your destination.

You would think if the city has DART, they would tell DART that they want more for their buck.
My company pays for an annual premium mass trans pass..means we can use it 24/7, 365 days no matter where we are going or when, on the buses/all the trains (even the TRE).
Right now, though, the "only" thing it is good for is getting to and from work. Maybe if I lived IN Dallas that has real mass trans with real bus routes, it would mean a lot more than it does now.

[yellowdogintexas]

36. oh I agree. I work for a company that will buy the passes for us also

We are being moved from FW to somewhere in Las Colinas in about a year, hence the need for the passes. The problem is getting from TRE stop to the building. If there is no shuttle to & from the building it will take us longer to get from the TRE to the office than from Fort Worth to the TRE stop.

Not looking forward to this. Hoping a shuttle will be worked out.

[pipi_k]

6. I live in the country too

and got a 0 on the "walkability scale"


We can't even bicycle anywhere because of the hilly terrain.


Although it's not a total loss. We can walk out to a lovely pond in back, and it's a few short steps to blueberry and blackberry bushes for fresh fruit in the summer. :)

[kimmylavin]

26. I'm in the country, too.

But we got a 6.
Must be our one restaurant. :)

[TahitiNut]

7. "Walk Score: 43 out of 100 — Car-Dependent" (No surprise.)

Where I lived in California (Los Gatos): "Walk Score: 74 out of 100 — Very Walkable"

Is it any wonder that I miss it terribly??

[handmade34]

8. great link

We have pushed ourselves into a corner by allowing community planners to not think environmentally (or not think at all) and we have allowed ourselves to become dependent on cars. I travel all over the United States for work and I love the new planned 'walkable' communities springing up. These come from a mindset of 'we are all in this together' instead of 'this is a free country and I can do as *I* please'...

[mia]

10. I get a 'we are all in this together' feeling here too.

There's a feeling of resourcefulness that's hard to describe. I guess I feel that I'll be more able to survive the hard times here.

[Warpy]

11. Mine was only 57 because they ended it at a boulevard

that's a 10 minute walk from my house. Most of the good stuff is on the other side of the boulevard. They also missed a few things like a public library branch a block away and mass transit a block and a half away. I did OK here when I was too blind to drive, one of the reasons I bought in this area. I knew what was coming.

My neighborhood is a walking neighborhood with sidewalks and people with granny carts all day long. It's a total rainbow of colors and cultures, although heavily Hispanic. It's not a wealthy area, but a wealthy area is about a 15 minute walk to the west. It's heavily Democratic, though.

My parents moved to suburbs when I was 14 and I loathed them. It was a pain in the ass to go anywhere, even with a bicycle or bus fare. To this day I can't stand living in them. I have survived in a rural area, in a small town, and in an inner city. Just don't expect me to live in the burbs, ever.

[EFerrari]

28. When a bus finally came to Sunnyvale (and I do mean "a bus"),

it went from our housing tract to the mall and back. That was it! It was like living in a horror movie! If you didn't own a car, you were some kind of curiosity.

It would take about 25 years for the yuppies to rebel and get some bike lanes and footpaths and a minimally decent public trans system.

[Occam Bandage]

13. I thought this read, "wankability," and was confused. nt

[Stevenmarc]

14. Mine is a 78 and in the past 18 months have cut car usage about 50%

I also ride a bike which is helpful for grocery store trips when I need to carry more. By walking you tend to shop in more family run businesses and it's nice to form a relationship with the owners and with big box competition they certainly appreciate the business.

[surrealAmerican]

15. My address got a 57, but ...

I don't drive and walk everywhere. The supermarket is exactly 1 mile away, and I can and do walk the 2 miles to downtown. They seem to have only included places within 3/4 of a mile to come up with the score.

[stuntcat]

16. mine's only 58 but

but it should be higher than that I think. I haven't been able to drive since 1999 when I had a brain injury, but I can walk to anything I need here.
I just wish there was a tool store a little closer. In the 90's I lived in NYC a couple of years and there I had a great tool store right on my block.

[mia]

19. Glad your OK to walk most places.

A regular hardware store is a few miles from here too.

[EFerrari]

27. Mine only got a 62 but like yours, I think it should be higher.

My car battery is actually dead right now from disuse! The only things not close at hand are books but there's a streetcar half a block away. :shrug:

[smokey nj]

17. My neighborhood got a 91 out of 100.

[greendog]

18. 92! Kalispell, MT.

Of course it's dark and cold for a good part of the year and the growing season is kind of short.

Not perfect but not bad.

[blues90]

22. Mine scored 91

We are right in the center of an area that everything we would need is easy to walk to. Down side is this area is also an area used to get through by lots of traffic. Also I don't see as many people walking as I did in the 80's.

[Blue_In_AK]

25. My city (downtown) gets a 94

but my neighborhood only a 40. It's sort of bogus though because the very first grocery store listed is no longer in business, and they don't discuss at all the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail which is a gorgeous walk quite close to here.

ed. The more I look at that neighborhood map, the more I'm scratching my head. I've been living here since 1990 and I've never even heard of half these places. I'm not trusting this at all.

[Contrary1]

29. My score is 29, but the mileage they show for different places is way off...

They list Franklin College (Indiana) as 0.57 miles away, it is at least 30 miles from here, in a different city. Walking distance to most of the other places listed is incorrect also.

[ColbertWatcher]

30. Great site! Thank you for posting! k+r, n/t

[Gormy Cuss]

31. Scored 18 (heavily car dependent) in spite of the fact that a major services area < 1.5 miles away.

There's nothing retail before that however and I guess walking a mile and a half is considered too far, even though I do it routinely.

It's not a grid layout and it has residential only zoning out here but the retail area is the start of a three mile swath of walkable commercial/residential mix.

I plugged in an address up the road and the walkability index went to 62.

[Lex]

32. I can walk to work ( 1.2 miles away) and to a grocery store ( 1 mile away)

and there is a city bus stop on the corner of my block. There are plenty of sidewalks in my neighborhood. I'm pleased with my specific walkability but that link only gave it a 43.

[Ivan Sputnik]

33. My score: 88 -- "very walkable"

Yay for me. I love to walk.

[Occam Bandage]

34. It's given me terrible results for my current address.

It tells me a bookstore exists that went out of business five years ago, labels some dude's house as a clothing/music store (maybe he's got a little business knitting sweaters or something, but I don't think I can buy a new pair of Levi's there), and calls a gas station that has little more than milk, soda, chips, and mini-donuts a "grocery store." Still, I get a 75.

[girl gone mad]

35. It's a little urban centric.

When I lived in Hancock Center in downtown Chicago, I'd find myself walking much less than when I lived in a suburb. I like walking in nature and I'm not big on shopping.

[eilen]

37. No matter how walkable

when it's 28 degrees with a new foot of snow, I'm not walking anywhere. We have a 5 lane road that is the main road to get into the village and while it is only 6 miles away, there are now sidewalks and some intersections don't allow any space between the turning lanes and the guardrail. The roads are often slippery and heavily trafficked this time of year.

In nice weather I manage fine on my bike, so long as I don't need to buy anything too bulky when shopping but that also entails crossing a non-pedestrian/bike friendly 6 lane highway and preoccupied drivers. I can get into the village on the bike when there is no snow by taking "ride arounds" (which increase the distance) away from the busy intersections and hooking up with an awesome park with good recreation trails. I just can't manage multiple errands because my bike has one good bag, and I can't handle more than one backpack.

[REACTIVATED IN CT]

38. My address in a little shoreline town

scored 80 but it should be higher. I am less than a qtr mile from the commuter rail station and didn't get any credit for that. Unfortunately, there is no commuter rail service to where I currently work. :(

I can walk to the library, the post office, the doctor's office, numerous restaurants, several banks. Now if I could just find a job in my town

[BlooInBloo]

39. As always, a fun site. And just an approximation, for any who whine...

about it being not perfectly accurate.

If I recall, my area was an 88.


EDIT: Wow! A mind like a steel trap! lol!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=3335936

[KittyWampus]

40. Mia, thanks so much for posting this. My little town is 83.

[ThomWV]

41. Now this is funny as shit. Ours is Zero, but we walk all over the place.

I am certain that on any given day I walk a lot farther than most any city dweller, but we rate a zero because there are no stores within walking distance, no public transportation, not even many neighbors.

[Lyric]

42. Walk Score: 17 out of 100 — Car-Dependent

*sigh*

We actually DON'T have a car. We rely on buses, taxis, and (rarely) friends with cars. If I won $10,000 on a scratch ticket tomorrow, though, I'd move closer to campus. We had been planning on moving, but then we had a series of catastrophes that required money to address, and we didn't have enough left over to do it. :(

[NeedleCast]

43. 64 - But I wonder if this program takes into account traffic patterns

I have a giant mall (Tysons in Falls Church) within a mile of my house. Problem is, to walk there I have to walk down Leesburg Pike, a four lane, high traffic, moderate speed road and cross over 495 (the DC Beltway) to get there. Its a short but suicidal walk to my "center."