What's Your Walk Score?

As we were reminded on a recent vacation, our driving skills are getting slightly rusty after almost fifteen years living in New York City. Sure we'd love to fill up a car trunk with groceries or cart home cheap furniture from garage sales, but we sometimes forget how wonderful it is to have almost all our necessities and amenities within walking distance (not to mention not having a car to take care of). We recently went online to find our own Walking Score (100/100 - w00t!) and realized that our choice of neighborhood is one of the greenest things about our lifestyle.

The Walk Score website is a great tool if you're considering a move and are making walkability one of your priorities. You can type in an address or browse their list of walkable neighborhoods in major cities (San Francisco is ranked the most walkable city in the nation, by the way.)

"What's Your Walk Score?" might just be the pick-up line of the new millennium.

Comments (4)

interesting, but not very useful.
The data it's pulling from is not very accurate, at least for me. It's telling me that the closest hardware store to my home is "the Hardware Grill" which, as you may guess is actually a restaurant. More than one of the restaurants it lists as in my neighbourhood have been out of business for more than a year.

Good thing I already live there and know that it's a very walkable place to live! I would not use this tool as a guide for relocating to a new place. It also does not take terrain into account, which seems strange to me. There's a huge difference between walking 2 blocks flat and walking two blocks up a steep hill!

Exactly. Elevation is kind of important. I used to live on hill in SF, and just based on flat proximity, my area was more walkable than it was in reality. Hiking up South Hill Blvd. definitely made the neighborhood unwalkable for errands several times a day.

The best way to check out a new area for relocation/resettlement is to visit it and check it out thoroughly. :(

I agree.... not very accurate. I live about four blocks from the home in the above picture, so I got a very similar map and at least three of the featured stores/restaurants and shops have been closed for more than two years.

I did, however check out a fencing club, which is only a few blocks away and previously unkown to me.

sadly, ours is a 12.... and that IS very accurate. Can't walk anywhere becuase of zoning laws. It's purely residential suburbs for about a 3-5 mile radius!