How “walkable” is your home on a scale of 1 to 100? I recently ran across a tool at WalkScore.com that ranks any address based on proximity to restaurants, shopping, grocery stores, movie theaters and the like. WalkScore provides a quick snapshot of one criteria that might be important for house and apartment hunters alike, with 1 being motorized transport only and 100 being an apartment above the megaloplex. Of course, any address in L.A. is set to default at 1 out of respect for the culture.
My current home received a gas-guzzling walk score of 15 out of 100. Not very good, but exactly what I expected. My former apartment in Boston, on the other hand, earned a walk score of 92. The site not only provides a walk score, but also a map with icons showing the distance to various public conveniences. Here’s what the map looks like for my former address on Beacon St. in Boston:
Walking to Fenway. That was the life!
Popularity: 4% [?]
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
They’re a little slick. Their distances are “as the crow flies,” so it is a bit deceiving. I wish I could just cut across the freeway, or through the river etc. Alas, I’ll still be driving to the library.
I believe that walk score is cool, but nowadays more and more people drive cars. Homes are often located in an area where some establishments are easier to get to by car than on foot. I’ve recently found a type of service on Fizber which is called Drive Score. It shows a map of what establishments are in your neighborhood and calculates a Drive Score based on the number of places within a convenient driving distance.
Jason, A good point. We certainly don’t want our readers crossing freeways, although I’m trying to work out a deal with Rob where he’ll fetch our subscribers books.
Kelly, Thanks for sharing the additional resource!
I think that we need to take both into consideration – walkscore and drivecore. It will show the whole picture…
Or maybe they should create a bike score. Just kidding