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I move a lot. Can’t tell you why — bad luck, maybe, or a naturally nomadic disposition. Either way, when I do pick up roots, I think very carefully about where I’m about to plunk them down again, and one of my A#1 considerations is walkability. Not because I hate my car, or am trying to debunk the nobody-walks-in-LA myth single-handedly, but because being able to walk to grab coffee or dinner or see a movie rather than spending an equivalent amount of time driving to do those things just make me feel good, like I’m interacting with my community on some basic level — or that I have a community to interact with. 
In any case, I wish walkscore.com had existed last time I moved — it would’ve made things a heckuva lot easier. It’s a particularly useful Google Maps mashup, which looks at how far away nearby stores, restaurants, schools etc are from your address, and gives your house a walkability rating. My current place got a pretty sweet 89 out of 100: very walkable. The uber-suburban house where I grew up, on the other hand, got a seriously lousy 14: you definitely need a car. I find walkability to be a close cousin to liveability, and walkscore an uncannily accurate barometer of both. How walkable is your house? Do you agree with your score?
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That’s a fantastic site! My current house got a 57, which I would say is about accurate (except that it doesn’t take into consideration the quality of stores, which might bump it down a few points). My old apartment got a 67, but I would consider it closer to an 80, personally. It would be interesting to see the formula they use in terms of distance since people have very different ideas of how long a “comfortable” walk is.
posted by Molly on 7-26-2007 at 7:36 am
My address scores 43. That would seem sort of okay, but I don’t think this thing factors in the fact that there are NO SIDEWALKS on which to walk, making walking an extreme sport in this part of New Jersey.
Thanks so much for finding this, though – we’re looking to buy a new house and walkability is a HUGE factor in where we look to live. I’ll be making use of this site, that’s for sure!
posted by Rachel on 7-26-2007 at 7:37 am
Heh! I live in a newly built housing area… my street does not even show up on Google Maps. I used the closest available street address to me and got a 9 out of 100. Not unexpected, since they’re still developing out there…
posted by Jason! on 7-26-2007 at 8:04 am
This seems like it would be useful, but I just don’t know about my area. It only gave me a 52 and the listings seem to have missed things like WalMart, Sam’s, and Central Market which are all less than a mile from my apartment.
The apartments themselves may be crap, but the walkability of the area and the cheap rent is exactly why we’re there.
posted by Truovrld on 7-26-2007 at 8:13 am
My house scores a big fat ZERO. And yes, I agree completely. If you don’t have a car in my neighborhood, you’re not going anywhere.
posted by xenylamine on 7-26-2007 at 8:16 am
I checked out a few locations. Recently my elderly parents moved into an apartment building which only had a 43 score. Which seems way too low. Supermarket, bank, pharmacy, starbucks, etc are all less than .25 miles away. They rarely have to drive anymore. Their old house had a 47 but nothing was closer than .5 miles away. So they always had to drive.
The best was my former apartment in Manhattan. It scored 100!
posted by Stew on 7-26-2007 at 8:30 am
Haha my house got a 0 as well. But I’m not really surprised, I live in the middle of nowhere.
posted by Meta on 7-26-2007 at 8:33 am
My neighborhood got 15. Yes, it’s definitely suburbia, although there were some errors in the listings- I know that the library is closer and so is the bookstore. However, the big downside is that it’s nearly 3 miles to the closest bar, and that is accurate. I guess everyone around here drinks at home. . .
posted by Lebetho on 7-26-2007 at 8:35 am
89 out of 100 for Charles City, Iowa – gotta love the small town – I can walk everywhere!
posted by Lindsay D on 7-26-2007 at 8:37 am
Wow…My place scored 95. However, after closer inspection they are a little too generous with the points- under bar they listed Jamba Juice (whaa?!). However, downtown Colorado Springs IS awesome…sometimes!
posted by Christina on 7-26-2007 at 8:47 am
My place in Stamford, CT scored a 91. It’s true: my car is wholly unnecessary. I walk to work everyday, visit the grocery store on the way home, walk to the movies, the gym, the bars. I can get anywhere I need to in 1/2 hour. New York is a short train ride away, and the station is 1/2 away by foot (or if lazy 10 min by bus, 5 min by cab). I wouldn’t live any other way. I used to live in the boonies, walking score of 0. The only time I walked was to get some fresh air.
posted by Leadhyena on 7-26-2007 at 9:06 am
14, but it should be lower.
The closest thing, a “grocery store” is 6/10 of a mile away. If you can call a gas station that sells 15 year old twinkles a grocery store.
The next closest thing was a “restaurant” which is disguised as a bar whose daily special is microwave hot pockets.
The bookstore 6 miles away is an adult bookstore.
I would like to move somewhere with a score in the 90’s but that will have to wait.
posted by n2y2 on 7-26-2007 at 9:09 am
Scored my part of Denville,NJ a 29 – way too low. Got the DunkinDonuts & the personal trainer .27 mi away from my house but missed the small Grocery store, florist, Subway, hairdresser and Great RattleSnake Ranch Cafe resturant in the same strip mall. May due to lack of sidewalks on my street?
posted by JaneM on 7-26-2007 at 9:20 am
My neighborhood scored a 35. I don’t know what they factored in, because its a weird situation. I live in town, and everything I need is within a mile BUT you have to walk down a very steep hill with lots of traffic and no sidewalk.
posted by Miss Cellania on 7-26-2007 at 9:21 am
My neighborhood scored a 46 but I don’t agree with the distances for any of the locations it pulled up. I think the distances must be measured drawing straight lines from my house to each point but as that’s not a walkable route the mileage is completely wrong.
posted by Linda on 7-26-2007 at 10:30 am
I hope they get support for this for Canadian cities soon.
posted by Tim on 7-26-2007 at 10:37 am
Walk Score is “currently over its Google Maps limit” and wants me to “try again in a hour.” Dang.
posted by TaTa on 7-26-2007 at 11:15 am
I’m so very proud, our place scored a perfect 100! I live downtown, and do walk everywhere…yay Walkscore!
posted by natlynn on 7-26-2007 at 11:58 am
Okay, so my place got scored a 66. They missed around 70% of the restaurants as well as some other places, plus they counted a few that no longer exist.
I wonder why they chose only those categories to determine walkability? Why hardware stores but not banks, ATMs, or movie rental places?
posted by TaTa on 7-26-2007 at 12:32 pm
My house got a 67, which I mostly agree with. I can say from recent personal experience, however, that it takes at least 20 minutes to walk the 1.8 miles to the relatively good strip mall. This is not a good idea in the middle of July, even if it is 10:30 in the morning.
posted by leofishy on 7-26-2007 at 1:06 pm
It would seem that these listings are based on what Google has them listed as, since this does use the Gmap API. I noticed some flaws, but they seem to be google’s problem.
Overall, this is very useful. My parents house in suburbia was a 6/100 and my house just outside the city of Rochester scored a pretty accurate 65/100.
posted by Mark on 7-26-2007 at 1:21 pm
Tim: I put in (my address), Ottawa, Ontario, Canada and it worked perfectly.
posted by Simon on 7-26-2007 at 2:44 pm
What a fantastic idea: it’s just about impossible to walk to anywhere in Metro Detroit. Some of the quoted distances were kinda inaccurate though: the park only
posted by Kerry on 7-26-2007 at 6:25 pm
I got a 34 in Hamden CT, which is about right since I wouldn’t walk to anywhere from here. Although apparently there are 5 Dunkin Donuts within 3 miles of here. My last residence, in New Haven, scored an 88.
posted by Sara on 7-26-2007 at 6:48 pm
Verrry interesting. Home and work both scored 80, though I question the validity of the home score. I live near the top of a very large and very steep hill, something like 400 ft above sea level. The nearest shopping center is about 1.5 miles away, mostly straight down. Not what I call walkable.
posted by flatulent1 on 7-26-2007 at 10:08 pm
I got a 32 at my house, but half the places they listed were on the other side of a major river, in the next state over. Unless I feel like kayaking to that coffee shop, my score should be closer to 4.
posted by camino on 7-26-2007 at 11:26 pm
lmao … zero out of 100!! Sweren Loop, Two Rivers, Alaska …
Let’s see … moose — in this area, people follow roads and trails, moose follow powerlines so it’s not a problem … once you get past the ones camped in your yard, eating your shrubbery.
Black bears — not a problem … the grizzlies chased them off long ago.
Dog teams — especially large teams on blind corners where the musher can’t see the lead dogs … if you’re lucky, it’s a team coming back from a long run and have settled down to a slow comfortable trot … otherwise, it’s a fresh team, charged up and ready to roll — over you.
Minibikes, go-karts, four-wheelers, and other forms of juvenile mayhem — forget it, you can hear them coming and get out of the way … worry about the dog teams instead.
Oh, yeah — most of the stuff on the list requires trekking through virgin country, including crossing one or two major rivers …
posted by Michael D. Griffin on 7-27-2007 at 12:00 am
Interesting post! My current place is a 74 out of 100; the place I’m moving inot is a 6.
Strangely, I am far less inclined to walk anywhere near my current place–I’m a busser, or I drive places, or I just stay home. I’m very excited that the new place is near some rural areas so that I can take my dog for walks.
I hate walking where there are so many other people and cars and such. Then again, my childhood home rated a 0 (I’m a rural transplant), so maybe this rating tool was not made for people like me.
posted by frumpiefox on 7-27-2007 at 11:09 am
I always complained about the walkability of my neighborhood before i had this word!
And now i have proof! a 5 out of 100.
Other than Alaska (aforementioned), i can’t imagine a worse place to live and be a runner.
posted by Flowbiscuit on 7-27-2007 at 11:30 am
52, baby! Much higher than I expected. That makes me feel bad about myself, since there is not a single place I ever walk to besides the bus stop.
posted by Jason on 7-27-2007 at 1:45 pm
3.
No kidding. I suspect it would be lower, if they took the hills into account.
And some of the things they showed (such as the movie theater) no longer exist.
And I don’t live in Alaska. I live in Southern California, down San Diego way.
posted by Shannon on 7-27-2007 at 4:20 pm
My house – in the center of my town – got a nice-ish 54. (It’s actually far lovelier than that – I’ve got a sidewalk, and right behind my house, literally 2 minutes walk, is the huge lake, in the woods, with a giant mountain backdrop.)
My parents – living a mere 7 minute drive away, in the sticks – actually got a 0. Yeah, a zero! (We’ll just say that the Appalachian Trail running through their backyard near-literally does not amount to much in walkscore world.)
It was interesting, too, that so many of the locations that came up have been closed for years!!
posted by Christine on 7-27-2007 at 6:09 pm
Mine scored a 43, but it was missing quite a few stores, including a chain grocery store that’s 6 blocks from my house. Granted, I wouldn’t want to walk that with heavy groceries in my hand, but still . . .
The best part for me is I live 2 blocks from where I work, and my husband takes a 10 minute bus-ride, so we hardly ever use our car (
posted by Larissa on 7-30-2007 at 2:32 pm
My house in Birmingham got a 94!! Guess I can give the Prius a rest and start walking a bit more. . .
posted by Colleen on 8-3-2007 at 7:34 am
My apartment building got a 90 out of 100! This is why I love this neighbourhood – everything is close by.
posted by Christine on 8-3-2007 at 9:33 pm
Walk Score can be really helpful if you are going to buy a house but can’t choose the best region. But i think that Drive Score can be rather useful as well. I ve come across this tool at drivescore.fizber.com With Drive Score, buyers can see how close establishments are by car. My score was 50. The greater number of businesses nearby, the higher the Drive Score.
posted by sasha on 11-28-2007 at 4:09 pm