These towns weren't made for walking

[dougo]

The walk score for my house is 32 (out of 100). And I think that's high, because it counts a sports pub as a restaurant and a mini-Dunkin' Donuts inside a gas station as a coffeehouse. Plus it doesn't take into account the scarcity of sidewalks around here.

My workplace somehow gets as high as 49, and that should even be a bit higher because it somehow thinks the movie theater two blocks away is ten miles away. But again, sidewalks around here are hard to come by, let alone crosswalks.

Contrast that with my previous apartment's score of 88, which is also low because it says the closest grocery store is 7-11 when the Brooks Pharmacy where I got most of my groceries is half the distance, plus there's a White Hen even closer. And of course it's an extremely pedestrian-friendly neighborhood, except in the winter when the sidewalk shoveling is half-assed.

(Link from crayonbeam.)

Comments

[parisgreen.livejournal.com]

Interesting toy. Doesn't at all measure what it says it's measuring, of course. Kind of an interesting measure of urban density, but I would expect a "walk" score to give me information about how comfortable and possible it is to walk around. Even their little comment about the "healthful" benefits of walking is misleading when you consider some of the dangers of walking in some of the places that get relatively high scores. Yes, our old apt. in Ossining (95) had more amenities nearby, but walking to some of them meant walking on a state highway. It had sidewalks but was not pleasant to traverse. Our currently place (58) may require longer walks to get to things, but the walks are on tree-lined streets with relatively light traffic.

[stoneself.livejournal.com]

the url you provide includes an (your?) address

[dougo.livejournal.com]

So does my web site.

[ketzl.livejournal.com]

I got a 0!

[in-parentheses.livejournal.com]

What a bizarre collection of "amenities"! For one thing, it thinks Cambridge Hospital is a library. For another, it left out half the coffee houses in my neighborhood (I live between Union and Inman -- there's a coffee house on every damn block) and only counted Dunkies.

On the potentially up side, now I've heard of The Theater Offensive.

[ahkond.livejournal.com]

66! BOO YAH

[chris-warrior.livejournal.com]

that's a pretty cool thing to be able to check out. huh. unfortuantely, a lot of high-scoring places would undoubtedly be cities.

[emmacrew.livejournal.com]

When I did my place I discovered it thinks swimming Lake Washington for 3/4 mile counts as "walkable."

I can actually walk to a little shopping center with a good grocery store, plus things like a drug store, cleaners, Starbucks, 3-4 quick restaurants. And it's quite a pleasant walk. But it pretty much ignored that center and offered up things that I can't actually walk to or that aren't really places you go (like the place that caters meetings it counted as a "coffee shop.")

[memegarden.livejournal.com]

My previous house in the suburbs got 64; my current house in the middle of Seattle gets 92. Both are about right, IMHO, even though it doesn't know about every shop in between. Thanks for the pointer!