What's your Walk Score?

[netmouse]

I checked out walkscore.com this morning, to see if it correctly reflects how nicely positioned my house is in Ann Arbor, so far as walking. It used Google Maps to calculated a walkability from 1 to 100 of the location based on what shops, etc are in the area.

Mu house has a walk score of 65 - meaning there are lots of walkable places around but you would probably still need to use a bike, car, or public transportation to run most errands. That seems like a fair estimate, considering that it matches my behavior. There were some weirdnesses, though, including the fact that its list of nearby parks was absent the Eberwhite woods park that's right behind the house as well as Vets park, both of which were on the map it used to show the shops and other locations it took into account.

Comments

[stardustgirl.livejournal.com]

LOL! Our house is a 31. There are many things nearby now (unfortunately... hate the sprawl) but no sidewalks to get there. Walking or biking along US 36, aka Hell's Corridor, will quickly turn you into a road pancake because everyone is on their cellphone and not paying attention.

[tlatoani.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Ours is a 6. And it's only that high because they've somehow convinced themselves that the Steak-n-Shake out by the Carpenter Rd. Meijer is actually on the dirt section of Ellsworth between Wagner and Tessmer.

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

Wow. You're even lower than I am -- my walk score of 8. As they say for all of us between zero and 25: Driving Only: Virtually no neighborhood destinations within walking range. You can walk from your house to your car!"

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

Mine is 15 out of 100, terrible, which is no surprise whatsoever. And it seems to misidentify a landscaping business as a grocery, and assumes Fermilab's library is a public library, so the score would be even worse if it were done more accurately.

The nearest bottle of milk is 1.3 miles away. The nearest restaurant is 1.08 miles, embedded in the Giant Outlet Mall.

(We knew the tradeoffs when we moved here. We have a wonderful house 6 years old, and we are close by car to where I work. They are building a Wal-Mart and a stripmall adjacent to the bottle of milk, but no stores nearer.)

I've always wished I could live in Ann Arbor...

[jeffreyab.livejournal.com]

My rating is only a 17 BUT the system misses a cinema, park, bar (which is lists as a restaurant but is mainly a bar), and fitness place all much closer than what it indicates.

It would work better if you could add services to the map.

[encorecrazay.livejournal.com]

My rating is a 78 but includes a place listed as a coffee shop AND a restaurant, but it's just the office for the local chain.

[howardtayler.livejournal.com]

49/100. Not bad for the Intermountain West, but I think it explains why I so seldom walk anywhere -- most of what I'd want to walk to is across a six-lane thoroughfare.

[mbumby.livejournal.com]

Mine stalled at 17 for about 20 minutes and I gave up.

It had one oddity, in that under "Clothing & Music" it had "Cannon's Hair & Warehouse", which I don't know anything about, but it doesn't really sound like clothing or music.

[netmouse.livejournal.com]

nod. there are weirdnesses like that. I saw a puppet shop listed under parks...

[childe.livejournal.com]

31/100. Ahhh, Detroit suburbia.

[boywhocantsayno.livejournal.com]

I got 77 for home, but it missed at least two coffee shops and two movie theatres. Strangely, the two coffee shops are the neighbourhood Starbucks (Starbuckses?) and the two movie theatres are both part of huge chains.

And my office's score was 58 (it lies).

[holyhippie]

My home scored a 6, which is about what I expected. It didn't get everything right though - there are a few parks very close that it missed; and honestly - my son's elementary school is in walking distance, and that's worth a lot.

My work and bachelor pad locations score in the 40-50 range. Which makes sense - those are in Silicon Valley, which has a lot denser and has more stuff scattered around, but is really far more structured for driving than for walking.

[mjwise.livejournal.com]

Heh, our place scores a 43. And that's generously defining a 7-11 as a grocery.

[knightlygoddess.livejournal.com]

Totally random comment - but I added you as a friend, so if you would like to add me to see my journal, you can! :) Nice to meet you today! I'm sure I'll be seeing more of you at various functions!

[netmouse.livejournal.com]

Yay!

It was nice to meet you too. I look forward to seeing you again!

[cannibal.livejournal.com]

Interesting... Asya's place in Bloomfield Hills, which we're trying to sell or rent, gets a 71, while my place in Dearborn gets a 63... I think it doesn't catch some of the nontraditional lebanese or non-chain stores that're close to my old place, and it doesn't catch the public rec center, climbing gym, pool, etc which is really close, whereas her place has more boring typical chain store type stuff right close at the corner. It also doesn't count the fact that there are lots of places to work within walking/biking distance from my old place, which is a really important factor, IMHO.

I'm getting a new many-mile long walking/biking path right by the new house, though!

[(Anonymous)]

My score was only 26. It means that my neighborhood is not very walk able. But actually i go by car much more often than on foot. So at drivescore.fizber.com i ve found another service similar to this one. With drive score one can see how close establishments are by car.