Do you know your house's walk score?

by Angie Felton (Subscribe to Angie Felton's posts) Aug 11th 2007 9:00AM

Categories: Places To Go, Health & Safety, Development, In The News

You've found what might be your dream home. The kitchen is great, the furnace energy-efficient, the roof has been replaced, you even checked the national sex offender registry to see who else might be calling the area home. But before you call the realtor to make an offer, take a moment to check the house's walk score.

Walkscore.com uses an algorithm to calculate the walkability of places like restaurants, libraries or stores from any address and converts those findings to a score between one and a hundred.

My house got a walk score of 55, which means there are some stores and amenities within walking distance, but many every day trips will require a bike, public transportation, or car. (Living in Michigan, the automotive capital of the world, that is not surprising or accidental.)

The program also maps out where stores and services can be found in relation to the address, making it a handy tool for those moving to a new, unfamiliar area.

Walking is good for the body, environment, and promotes interaction among neighbors. A program that makes it easier for people find walkable neighborhoods to call home is a stroke of genius.

Source

Comments (8)

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Anita 8-11-2007 @ 4:01PM

That was very interesting. Thank you for writing about a walkscore. My town's score is very low and I wish I knew that before we moved here.

christine 8-11-2007 @ 4:02PM

I believe in the concept 100%, however, the database that calculated our score was simply flawed. For example, the nearest restaurant was supposedly a fast food restaurant with an address given that simply doesn't exist. That address is a residence, not a Burgerville restuarant. And there are actually 2 restaurants that are approx. .2 miles from our house, both closer than the imaginary Burgerville. In a similar fashion, the closest grocery listed is really a convenience store, while the closer grocery store (which ironically focuses on local, organic products) is not listed at all.

caitlin 8-11-2007 @ 1:08PM

I like the idea, but it's very inaccurate for my neighborhood. It doesn't take into account walking paths, traffic levels, and the availability of crosswalks. It also calculates distance "as the crow flies", and it treats the interstate the same as other streets. I do a lot of walking to the stores in nice weather, and their estimates are off by a mile or two, if you happen to like getting there legally and in one piece.

I realize that they're piggybacking on Google, which doesn't list crosswalk availability and walking trails, but the way they present their map doesn't letter viewers get the best view. If a high level zoom hybrid view exists, you can usually see crosswalks and if the streets line up the way you expect (overpass vs. intersection). Not sure if Google's api permits it, but the traffic button would also be handy, to see if those roads carry a high load of traffic during peak times. It would be neat if they let users upload gpx files of walking paths, so you could see shortcuts.

But I guess for now, it's a good way to supplement the old fashioned way :).

caitlin 8-11-2007 @ 1:10PM

bleh, letter = let. My two year old was wanting to "deliver" mail to me, and I had letters on the brain.

Oana 8-11-2007 @ 1:28PM

Thanks for posting this, very interesting!

Ethel 8-11-2007 @ 3:29PM

caitlin is right, it calculates mileage by direct route not actual sidewalk routes that one would take. But, at least it gave me one thing to be glad about this house - it scored 88 even so maybe there is something okay about it even without the yard.

Greta 8-12-2007 @ 9:33PM

I'd be really curious to see what kind of neighborhood scores 100%, since my extremely walkable Brooklyn nabe, in which the furthest item on their list is .34 miles from our apartment, and everything else is within a couple of blocks, scores 91/100. We don't need to drive to anything at all - how could it possibly get better than that on such a scale?

Heather 8-13-2007 @ 7:10PM

It is very inacurate for my area. It had many wrong address but the lables were right. even then my very walkable area only got a 41!

My sister got a 53! Wow they have harsh standards for her place to be a 53. She can walk to work, grocheries, she doesn't need a car or even public transit.

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