Comments on What's Your Walk Score?

My place in the U-District scores an 89.

Funny, my neighborhood here in DC got the exact same score as you, Dan, but I don't think it's nearly as dense as Capitol Hill (with business, anyway).

I live in dense, walkable Capitol Hill and got a 98. An improvement from the last time I entered my address - for some reason Izilla toy store counts as a bookstore, which bumped me up from the previous score of 95.

My place in Belltown = 100.

My little neighborhood in Baltimore got a 78. Too bad Walk Score can't take your place of work into account too. I live about a 20 minute walk from mine. It's great...most weekdays my car just sits.

My neighborhood is less walkable than my old Capitol Hill apartment, but I got a higher WalkScore than you.

Also, WalkScore thinks the "Bastyr Dispensery" is a drugstore. (We have no drugstore here) and also thinks 7-11 is a grocery store. It also lists "school" as Seattle Language Academy.

This isn't a perfect system.

dense, walkable castro = 86.

"coffee shops: none found". walk score's not lookin' too hard. there are 7 within a 2 block radius of my apartment [2 of them are starbucks].

15th Ave = 94%

Ha-ha! I live way out in the boonies of Crown Hill, and got a 77!

My place in SW Denver is 52. No surprise, there's hardly any attractions nearby for the stroller. But that's how I get around anyway, when it's not cold and I don't need to pick up a lot of groceries or other goods.

south park got a 37... that's about right, if a little high.

BTW, my last place in Seattle (north slope of Queen Anne, not far from the Fremont Bridge) rated an 82. Obviously the calculator doesn't account for 15% grade slopes, although I hiked those climbs anyway.

The score seems to fall off fast when distances get over 1/2 mile. If you move even a couple blocks say for 14th and Roy to 15th and Prospect, the score drops by about 10.
It also seems to be based on aerial distance not walking distance, because SLU addresses end up too close to the stuff on the other side of I-5.
So the service seems to be aimed at lard-asses with jet-packs.

is this link recycling week on slog?

guess you don't live in the dense, walkable, part of capitol hill. my apartment scores a 98.

18th Ave Between John and Madison gets a 94%. Dan I think you just live a bit to far away from 15th

Wedgewood got a 66?? That seems high...

Greenwood = 78!

For mine, it counted QFC as a bookstore, Burger King as a restaurant, and an Indian restaurant as a bar. It's a cute tool, but needs some tweaks to be more useful.

What a piece of shit survey.
I scored an 80.
Greenlake

Dan, 71 is a pretty good score according to walkscore's what it means link:

"Here are general guidelines for interpreting your score:

90 - 100 = Walkers' Paradise: Most errands can be accomplished on foot and many people get by without owning a car.
70 - 90 = Very Walkable: It's possible to get by without owning a car.
50 - 70 = Some Walkable Locations: ....
25 - 50 = Not Walkable: ...
0 - 25 = Driving Only: Virtually no neighborhood destinations within walking range. You can walk from your house to your car!"
"

My place in Fremont is an 86.

Except after 4 pm on a Sunday ...

My place at 52nd & Brooklyn = 95. Also, thanks to the breakdown, I now know of two additional grocery stores and hardware stores right near my apt. that I never noticed before, so this was actually quite helpful!

I am further down the hill from you Dan, and I managed a 95. Closer to downtown must make a big difference...

I wonder what downtown Chicago is missing to only score a 98? I can't think of a thing I could ever want or need that isn't in a 10-block radius; perhaps access to a mountain or ocean?

thanks for the tip! I'll be emailing this all day. My Columbus, Ohio home is an 83 (not counting the new organic grocery). Of course, it also doesn't calculate and minus the crackhead factor.

Seems like it uses a formula of amenities around and their distances. Coffee shops, retail stores, libraries, they generate trips, but small details, like crosswalk, sidewalk width, grade, street light, building scale also matter.

You know why Wedgwood's the new Queen Anne? Walk score of 71, equal to Cap Hill. Rock on!

My place in Issaquah scores a 12. I've walked to the Issaquah Brewhouse and the grocery store, but they're both 1000' vertically and 1-2 miles away. Good exercise!

All of the Issaquah valley (not the hills) gets scores of 70-85.

Hmm. 72 in Greenwood/Greenlake area, but the map indicates a (non-existent) hardware store two blocks away, which when I click on says "Nels Tahoe Hardware, South Lake California" While I don't mind a good walk, I think I'll take a pass on walking there . . .

74 out of 100 which I interpret as walkable but your ass might get run over on Rainier by some ass that doesn't know which lane is for a right turn and cuts across the crosswalk doing 25 while I have the right of way.

Kinda cool, though it could be improved:
- It could calibrate to my lifestyle. I don't have kids and don't need schools nearby.
- It could consider topography. Hills are not as easy to walk as flatland.

Yeah, is this recycling week?

So where did you find this site, Dan? Just curious as the link was heavily making the rounds a month or two ago.

I'm near the Castro and my address scored 97.

The Stranger offices: 98.

lake city 47, definitely accurate

Bellevue Ave

94

Richard we live on 14th. That gets us a 92.

Upper Fremont = 78. Though I don't think they gave me extra points for being two blocks away from Paseo Caribbean.

I've lived in quite a few other cities and towns in my life. For instance, close to the center of Woodbury NJ (WS=62) through age 10, the uber-suburb Cherry Hill NJ (WS=45) in my high school years. My first job was in Louisville KY (WS=51). While doing my post-doc, I lived in the Manayunk neighborhood of Philadelphia (WS=68), and my first house was in Pittsburgh's Highland Park neighborhood (WS=62). Before moving to Seattle, I lived in Portsmouth NH (WS=31).

Some of those scores seem reasonable to me -- suburbia isn't supposed to be walkable -- others not. Portsmouth, for instance, had relatively few of each sort of business nearby (its population is only about 20,000), but they were often extremely interesting and high-quality choices. I walked around Portsmouth all the time.

Ugh, south end - 57. We can't even get pizza delivered in our 'hood. (Sorry Dominos and Pizza Hut do not count as pizza)

Oh yeah, this. It's simplistic and flawed, based only on the proximity of businesses: car-centric Vegas neighborhoods got scores in the 70's, and Vegas in many areas is about as walkable as Beirut.

Old West Side of Ann Arbor = 48. But I walk everywhere. Hmmm.

The walkscore folks have beaten you to all of your critiques: http://www.walkscore.com/how-it-doesnt-work.shtml

Basically, it's only as good as google maps and businesses' own listings. That said, it's pretty neat.

I got an 89 for my spot in capitol hill, but got a 99 for my place in SF.

I should spend more time there.

Seattle U gets a 91 but the places it lists for reasons are bizarre. Imperial Grocery as a grocery store? Well, yeah, I guess, if selection and choice aren't important. And Kelly's Pizza is long gone.

HEY! I scored a 78 (very Walakable) and I live only a couple of blocks from Dan Savage (who scored a 71)! WTF?!

Mt. Baker Gold Coast - a 58 was (self) thought to be impressive. but then I saw the competition. I agree with Bleakon Hill - Domino's (catholicism) does not work for me. Go Pho Bac!

I think, Madge, that this walkable score assumes that people want to live in walkable 'hoods but they don't want to walk much. It's a few blocks to the 15th business district from my house, so I lose tons of points, apparently. So any walk of more than three blocks means a place isn't "walkable" enough. Which is kind of nuts. My place is very walkable -- if you like walking. Which I do.

42. But look what they said per your link:

As MarlonBain said, "You should use the Web 3.0 app called going outside and investigating the world for yourself" before deciding whether a neighborhood is walkable!

In other words, what you would do if not for our tool, meaning our tool is essentially pointless!

Nice work with that arrogant disclaimer, MENSA rejects.

One mile north of "downtown" Bothell=71, which seems a bit high. Still, it shows that some parts of suburbs are more walkable than many parts of the city. Seattleites who think the world ends at the city borders might want to mull that over for a while.

First Hill=100

West Cap. Hill--97!

Mine puts a J&M Lumber hardware store (address? Baker, Montana) .44 miles from my front door!

My home in the lettered streets of Bellingham=82

My house in Greenwood got a 77. My previous place on top of QA Hill got an 86. My old apartment in the St. Ben's neighborhood of Chicago got a 72. My parents' house in the small town in Indiana where I grew up got a 37.

It can't be that tough. I live in the CD, and my house got an 89.

Ah, so that's why Fremont is only an 86.

They don't count all our indie stores.

Wow. I put in my parents' house in a suburb of Phoenix and it got an 11. I mean, intellectually I am aware of the fact that it's 10 minutes to the nearest anything, but it's still horrifying.

Happily, my apartment in Philly got an 88!

My neighbourhood -- 8 mins walk outside a densely-packed medium-sized town -- only scored a 43.

But virtually no one here even has a car, because there's no way anyone would need one. Most people walk everywhere, or if not the bus is closer than the town itself.

This thing should take into consideration the presence of sidewalks, crime statistics, and the fact that Sheetz Gas Station is not a grocery store.

92 in Wallingford.

94 near the intersection of the Pike-Pine corridor and I-5.

I got a 69 for my Wedgwood/View Ridge neighborhood. One of the reasons this area scores relatively high is the large number of businesses that apparently are on University Circle NE, in the Hawthorne Hills. For example, Wing-It Productions, the University Bookstore, and Blue Dog Coffeehouse are all on this residential circle on the side of a hill. Who knew?

i know you guys enjoy trying to insult olympia, but my apartment there just scored a 91!

it listed QFC as a bookstore...

It puts the City of Baker, Montana less than a half a mile from the Broadway Market......

Its complete nonsense and full of errors. In my NW neighborhood, it missed the local library and several parks, and included a long-gone movie-theater. But to my enormous amusement it shows a Bartells Drugs right smack at the entrance to the Highlands, which will come as quite a surprise to its affluent inhabitants.

This is hysterical! I tried it for where my brother's business is up near the Everett Boeing plant. For Bookstores it lists "Airport Adult Video"!!! This may ring a bell with afficionados of skanky sleaze-pits :)

My place in downtown Edmonds got an 88. Yay!

I live in sprawl-heavy South Florida, so the 32 my house scored seems just about appropriate.

Churches and Temples are not Schools and Bookstores, though. my HS is about 20 minutes driving away.

I live in sprawl-heavy South Florida, so the 32 my house scored seems just about appropriate.

Churches and Temples are not Schools and Bookstores, though. my HS is about 20 minutes driving away.