Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Walk it out!

I just found this totally groovy website that gives your neighborhood (or any neighborhood) a "walkability score."

(via Treehugger) So how walkable is it where you live? Find out with Walk Score, which "uses a patent-pending algorithm to calculate the walkability of an address based on:
* The distance to walkable locations near an address.
* Calculating a score for each of these locations.
* Combining these scores into one easy to read Walk Score."

You type in your address and it puts it on a Google map and gives it a score. 70 to 90 is very walkable; 90 to a hundred is a walker's paradise.
I typed mine in a got a delightful 86. And I must say my neighborhood is very walkable. The article I found this through suggested you use this tool when planning your next move but I think you could also use it when looking at vacation hotels.

I also looked at this handy guide and discovered that in all of Los Angeles we live int eh most walkable part of the city, Mid-City West (who knew that was even where I lived?) which scored the highest in the city with a 92. I knew I lived here for a reason.

11 comments:

dit said...

What a great idea. I much prefer a walkable neighborhood too. Our old neighborhood was much more walkable.

Our area got a 77 out of 100.

Rachel V. Olivier said...

Did you watch Craig Ferguson last night? Los Angeles has been deemed one of the most "walkable" cities in the US. Obviously whoever put that up doesn't live here. It can be a long hot walk to nowhere in some areas.

Rachel V. Olivier said...

Okay, I checked and I got an 85 in my neighborhood, not too surprising, really. But some of the places they say I could walk to, I wouldn't. I would bus to them, but on a hot day with all that concrete I would NOT walk to Santa Monica and Highland. And after dark, I wouldn't necessarily walk it either. I've walked it at night. I always wish I had a can of mace or pepperspray with me, and I always walk as if I DID have a can of mace or pepperspray with me.

The T-Dude said...

Only a 68 for me, but livin' in the 'burbs will do that.

A Lewis said...

78 here...right on the middle of a fantastic neighborhood.

Michael Guy said...

Are we walking in flats or heels?

Rachel V. Olivier said...

Oh! Good question!

My adventures said...

I got an 80. I was shocked. And what a great idea for booking hotels. Very clever. And, no answer to the flats or heels question? hmmmmm....

TheHMC said...

I got a 60 for my neighborhood. It said "somewhat walkable" which is true. It's not bad in spots, but most of the streets are on hills and nobody likes to walk or run up hills.

At least, no one I know.

Michael Guy said...

My "walkability" score is 97.

No, I do not have a guest room.

HAR!!!

No wonder the rent went up. Just saying.

Tim in the South said...

I use to live in Mid-City. It always cracked me up, because it's such a beautiful part of town, but if you look it up Google or any of the map books it's just a big white blob with lots of perfectly straight horizontal and vertical lines. It looks so drab it might as well be Carson. I always wondered if they did that on purpose, to make it look less appealing than it really is.