WalkScore

[Gigi]

I'm moving at the end of next week to a new city (actually, it's the city directly between my old city and the city I currently live in). When looking at places, walkability was a huge factor for me--I knew I wanted to live within walking distance of the beach, restaurants, coffee shops, bars, etc. I used Walk Score a lot when looking at places on Craigslist, etc.

My current place is a 69: Somewhat Walkable. I thought I would do a lot more walking while I lived here, but truthfully, I didn't walk too many places--the coffee shop a few times, the street fair, the beach, etc. The only place I really walked to regularly was the farmer's market, because it was right down the street.

My new place is a 95: Walker's Paradise! It's close to everything, and I mean close. I am so looking forward to being able to rely a lot less on my car. The idea of not having to worry about driving home from a bar, or finding parking at the beach is so nice! There's also a gorgeous running and biking route that runs right along the ocean--can't wait to take advantage of that. I do wish it was within walking distance of a gym, but can't have everything I suppose.

So, if you don't mind sharing--what's your WalkScore?

[puck]

hmm. we're apparently a 75, which i guess makes sense. we're within walking distance of a lot of stuff, but it's not a walk i'd really like to take - it's pretty busy roads, and industrial. i work .4 miles from here, but if i walked i'd have to cross a really busy road (like, people zoom off the freeway exit). so it's a little frustrating. but it's great for my partner - we're a two minute walk from his gym and 1.4 miles from his college (which is nothin' for my little gym bunny), and those things are in the other, less industrial direction.

i loved living where we used to in olympia because it was riiight on the edge of town, so we could walk to pretty much everything. that said, walkscore only gives it a 72, so i don't know.
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[pony j]

The walk score for my house is 8... :/

I do love where I live (suburban neighborhood surrounded by farmland) but it is a lifestyle very dependent on cars which is not ideal.
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dirtywestgeekwveveggierap

[meexie]

The place I'll be living in at the end of this summer is a 14. The nearest bus stop is almost half a mile away. I'm not thrilled, but the choice wasn't all up to me.

ETA: by car, my work commute is 30 minutes. By bus, 2 hours. BLEH.
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[checkersumthing]

Mine is 93, though I think it should be teensy bit higher (the website doesn't always interpret data properly, since a lot of the places around here have french names). Though I shouldn't complain, that's pretty high :)

I don't think walkability is everything though. It's important to me, personally, since I do not own a car and do not intend on owning one (unless something came up in the future that required me to have one). But walking isn't for everyone and I'm ok with that. The suburbs and rural areas have their charms and advantages too. Also, the walkscore doesn't take into account that several months out of the year it is below freezing here and often sidewalks are covered in ice. Or hills. Or public transit. But it's a good number for comparison.

I am very happy to live where I live, because everything I could pretty much need is within a couple of blocks of me. We don't need a car. We use public bikes. I occasionally take public transit when I need to go "far". I walk/bike to work. I used to say that I was very lucky to live where I do, but lately I've changed that to say I'm very happy I made the choice to live where I do. While luck had a lot to do with finding our apartment (it's big for theprice and location), it if it wasn't this one, we would have found another.
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[shortskirt]

Wow, I didn't think where I live would be listed, but it is! My new house is an 89 or Very Walkable! That was one of the big reasons I moved here. It's in a very small city, so really everywhere is walking distance (if you don't mind walking 20-30 minutes).
My old house is a 3 or Car Dependant, which I could have told you. It's very rural. The closest entertainment is the drive-in, which is 16 kilometres :)

[Jzane]

I'm a 75! Whoohoo!

It surprises me how much people are surprised that I walk places. And it's not even that far. I walk about 2 blocks to the train station every day, and when I tell Car People that they're like OMG HOW DO YOU MANAGE. And there's a bar about 1 block further than the train station that I walk to sometimes, and when people find out I walked they're horrified. I'm like, "Guys, I can SEE my house from here. Seriously."
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[Melmont]

Mine is a 67, which I kind of question. My previous apartment, which is no more than a 5 minute walk away scored a 90. It seems like it might use building and population density to determine walkability, which usually works in larger urban centers, but not always small cities. My old apartment was closer to the downtown center here, but by less than a kilometer. This one is closer to a major grocery store, the YMCA plus another major gym and a large community center, two large parks, a health center, walking trails -- basically a lot of major amenities. Yet it scores way lower. Still it was pretty much right on for our various apartments in the much larger city we used to live in, so it seems like a really useful tool if you don't know a larger area.
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[killr]

I would take any score with a huge grain of salt. I just looked at my data and it has listed a ton of places that are either closed, at a very wrong location, or are maybe the home address of a small business owner. I think it also calculates distance directly (as the crow flies) not taking into account the river the runs behind my neighborhood.

My score was 23, car dependent but I dont agree with that. I have very little less than 1 mile from home but I have a major shopping centers at 1.2 miles with no major roads or obstacles. The website only listed 1 small shop in that shopping center and doesnt list the grocery store, the bigbox discount department store, the 8-10 restaurants, the craft store (woot) or any of the 15 other storefronts.

I think I have a good location. I can walk 1.2 miles to just about anything I would need to buy, but I can also walk .25 miles to wooded path along a river, I can walk 1-2 miles along that river to a National Park, I can walk 30 feet to homegrown produce.

[checkersumthing]

[Gigi]

FWIW, knowing the areas both of my scores are from, I'd consider them very accurate. YMMV.

[killr]

[checkersumthing]

[Gigi]

WalkScore methodology

[Gigi]