I discovered a nifty site called Walkscore yesterday. It calculates the distance from your home to restaurants, schools, grocery stores, etc. and assigns your address a score from 1 to 100, with 1 meaning you're completely car-dependent and 100 meaning you live in a "walker's paradise." The site is very candid about the strengths and weaknesses of its algorithm. For example, it doesn't take into consideration whether or not there are any sidewalks around your neighborhood, or whether the businesses that seem to be close by are actually on the other side of a freeway. Still, it's kind of fun to see what score your home gets.
My current home gets a 71, which makes it "Very Walkable." I would agree, or perhaps even give it a higher score. After all, we lived without a car for nearly a month and found that we could get by walking almost everywhere we needed to go. Our duplex in Burbank was apparently even better--it scored an 83. Again, pretty accurate. We walked a lot of places on a regular basis in Burbank. The weaknesses of the system became apparent when I put in my parents' address, though. It got a 60, "Somewhat Walkable." But there are no sidewalks in that neighborhood, and nearly all of the businesses mentioned are located on a major street that also has no sidewalks. Growing up I hardly walked anywhere--it just wasn't safe or practical.
So here's a little discussion starter for my blog readers. What's your home's walkscore? Do you agree or disagree with it? Leave a comment--I'd love to hear what other people think of the site.
6 comments:
We got a 46. That seems about right especially since the route of travel to most places is along a very busy street. The only downside to the site is that it doesn't allow you to enter quantity and age of children that one might be walking with which could potentially make even those close to 100 scores a difficult trek. =) It also doesn't have a gauge of any sort for walkability based on crime levels of given areas! Fun site regardless.
We got a 22. Doesn't surprise me!
--Becky
43/100. Car Dependent. This is absolutely true. I live in a busy suburban area, and while I *could* walk to a convenience store a short distance away, I would be risking my life to do so. We used to walk to the elementary school to try to save gas, but I got fed up with putting mine and my kids' lives at risk to cross the street.
I should add that I didn't mean I live in a dangerous (crime) neighborhood. It's the speeding cars that are dangerous.
Our neighborhood scored 55. Probably pretty accurate although I don't even think to walk anywhere other than to the park and library so I'm not the best judge!
Love, Jamie
We got a 57, which surprised me since I walk so many places with the stroller--to church, the grocery store, drycleaners, bank, library, post office, etc. Maybe we got a low score b/c there just aren't very many places to go in Dixon period! :)
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