What's Your Walk Score?
Posted by: HeatherAug 20 2008, 5:27 pm
My friend Danny in NYC recently shared the web site WalkScore.com with me. Plug in an address in the United States, and the neighborhood will get a walkability score.
The web site suggests that you use the information so you can find a good place to live. Although I already had a place to live, I had to see how my neighborhood in unincorporated Clackamas County–where I have lived for almost my entire life–stacked up.
Not surprisingly, my neighborhood rates as a 42/100=Car Dependent. It surprised me that it didn't rate lower! There aren't sidewalks until you cross the nearby border into the City of Portland, and some residents love cars so much, and have so many of them, there's no room for anything else in their yard.
Although WalkScore lists grocery stores and restaurants near my house, the ones that are less than a mile away are either convenience stores with an extremely limited (and rather unhealthy) selection, buildings that have no storefront, or–in the case of the Philippine restaurant–recently closed. Access to larger stores is better than it was in the past, but SE 82nd isn't exactly a pedestrian paradise, and the feeder streets to get there are also lacking sidewalks. Boo hoo.
On the other hand, the BTA's neighborhood rates a 97/100=Walkers' Paradise. We've got lots of dining establishments, attractions, banks, two major grocery stores, parks, the largest independent bookstore in the nation, and lots of other great things, within an easy walk of the office.
Walkable neighborhoods often go hand-in-hand with bikeable neighborhoods. The presence of many people out on the streets slows drivers down, heightening awareness. The more of us that are out there, the better off we all are. Bicyclists and pedestrians are the ultimate traffic-calming devices!
How does your neighborhood rate?
Yeehaw! My neighborhood scored 86! This helps further justify our family's choice to rent close-in so we can be a car-free family rather than try to buy in way outer somewhere where we'd have to depend on our car. Two kids in school, two jobs, two soccer teams, two swim lessons, one pool team, beginning bike racing and some random volunteer commitments are way easier to handle when you live in a walkable/bikeable neighborhood. I consider myself very lucky!
Yes, walk score is real a good idea! But why only walk score?
How often do we walk nowadays? More and more people drive cars.
I have also tried one more service at
http://drivescore.fizber.com/. It is called Drive Score.
With the help of it you can see how close establishments
are by car. Try! It's really a perfect idea!
It’s difficult to me to understand how computer counts my walk, drive and others scores. By what criterion it judges? I don’t agree with my mark and I feel upset! I don’t need most things (Gas Station, Railway Station) that computer proposing to me. But I found a service http://drivescore.fizber.com/ that offers me to choose things by myself. So my score become much higher then it was.