How Walkable is Your Neighborhood?

The good folks at Carfree USA Blog point us toward this simple, fun, easy-to-use, Google enabled website called Walk Score at www.walkscore.com.  The site says it "is inspired by" Sightline Institute, an environmental non-profit based in Seattle.

How it works. 1. Type in an address. 2. See a walking map 3. Get your score. It's so easy! Walk Score says that it calculates the score by locating nearby stores, restaurants, schools, parks and such that you can walk to. Their description of a walkable neighborhood says:

"Picture a walkable neighborhood. You lose weight each time you walk to the grocery store. You stroll home from last call without waiting for a cab, you spend less money on your car - or you don't own a car. When you shop, you support your local economy. You talk to your neighbors."

Sounds great. I quickly put in my address in Rosemont near the Braddock Road Metro, Del Ray and Old Town and got a 71 score. Seemed a tad low. I put in both my brother and grandmother's addresses in suburban Bowie, Maryland and got scores of 35 and 14 respectively. So far so good. My work address here at the County Government building was a very walkable 88 as was my other half's work address in Old Town (88). A buddy's house in the downtown Mt. Vernon District (near Penn Station) in Baltimore was 86. My old address in Del Ray, same as my current address - also 71. Okay it seems to be calibrated correctly. Then I put in my parents address in suburban Crofton - 71 too. Hmmm... I wasn't sure how much I trusted the site at this point. Crofton? Walkable? There may be lots of retail within a mile or two, but it's located on U.S. 301 and 450 and is surrounded by seas of parking. I don't think many people walk to retail there and this isn't the kind of neighborhood I think of when I think of walkable. But maybe these folks could give it a try? I noted the Walk Score disclaimer mentioned "How it (the Walk Score site) Doesn't Work." It doesn't account for street width, block length, freeways, public transit, aesthetics and pedestrian-friendly design. All things that go into making a place more walkable. Thus the Crofton Curve.

However, even with this caveat, the site is great fun and makes a good point that we should all walk more. Have fun trying it out. What's your score? For more info on walking visit WALKArlington.com.

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Chris Hamilton is the Commuter Services Chief for Arlington County, manager of CommuterPageBlog and a biking/Metro commuter from Rosemont in Alexandria

Comments

[The Truth About Six Pack Abs]

nice little site tool for walking!

[David Goodman]

I put in my address, very near Arlington Hospital and between the Lee Harrison strip-shopping center and downtown Westover. My location got a 60. It seems to have captured all the strip commercial up and down Lee Hwy. Including stuff I would never consider walking to, such as the Regal Cinema 3-miles away near my office. But it also seems to have missed all of downtown Westover! No Ayers Hardware. No Lebanese Taverna. No Arat Coffee. Curious indeed! Another hidden gem (sort of) is the hospital cafeteria, which offers some of the best fresh pasta dishes anywhere in Arlington, save Il Radichio, near Courthouse. As was mentioned before: Factoring in block length and size of intersections would make this a much smarter tool.

PS: I just tried punching in my old DC address, and got a pop-up window telling me they couldn't process my request because they'd gone over their Google Maps memory allotment. "Try again later." (Must be getting popular!)

[carfree usa]

Thanks for the hat tip, Chris.

Over at the Carfree USA blog a little contest has broken out in the comments field.

Who lives carfree in the neighborhood with the lowest walkability score?

These folks are the true pioneers. Making the world safe for the car-free tribe.