No, it has nothing to do with heart-rate monitors. Your walk score is determined by analyzing your proximity to stores and services.
We help homebuyers, renters, and real estate agents find houses and apartments in great neighborhoods. Walk Score shows you a map of what’s nearby and calculates a Walk Score for any property. Buying a house in a walkable neighborhood is good for your health and good for the environment.
In my case, the results were a bit disappointing.
Despite the fact that I am about midway between a full-service grocery store and the main branch of the public library, my walk score was a weak 43 on a scale of 1 to 100. But when I clicked around the results screen a little, I noticed the grocery had disappeared, and a movie theater that is actually several miles from my side of town was shown on the next block. The popular sushi restaurant on the corner was listed as a catering service, while Arnold’s, the diviest dive bar I know, was featured prominently.
Maybe your results will be more accurate. Check it out and see how your address rates. If nothing else, you will see all the great reasons you have to walk instead of driving. Unless you’re trying to catch a movie. In that case, you’ll definitely want to crank up the roadster.
- Topic: Politics
- Topics: Culture, Environment, Global Warming
Mine was 9 on a scale of 1 to 100 which is very poor. Actually I don’t live far from work or the New Orleans business district and French Quarter but when the area I live in was laid out someone decided to zone all businesses out of the neighborhood. So there is a lot of housing including apartments and condos but nothing really in walking distance where you can buy anything. With Peak Oil on the horizon communities will have to do a much better job of laying themselves out so people can walk to do most of what they need to do.
I rated a 77 out of 100 but also have a quibble or three with the results here in West Hollywood.
Foremostly, the closest bar it listed is five long blocks away when in fact Marix, a locally famous Tex-Mex and margarita joint is demonstrably within crawling distance from my front door, and there are five other places closer than the bar listed where one can purchase a beverage at a bar. What the system doesn’t contemplate is local laws that force bars to sell food and call themselves restaurants. This is borne out by the fact that the “bar” listed in the results is in fact a restaurant named the Boulevard Lounge.
The results also list the historic Actor’s Studio, where Marilyn Monroe and others took acting lessons from Lee Strasburg, as a “movie theatre.” It’s actually one of three live theatres within a mile of here. There is an art-house movie chain, the Laemmle Five, also within a mile, at Sunset Blvd. and Crescent Heights Blvd.
The closest bookstore listed is one I’d never heard of – My 12 Step Store, which is down the street near all the gay bars. There is a great non-chain bookstore at Sunset and Holloway Drive, maybe eight blocks away, Book Soup, that isn’t even in the extended results.
And what about dry cleaners? There are four within three blocks of my house, including Mendel’s Dry Cleaner’s to the Stars across the street, but dry cleaners aren’t even in the mix. I think points should be given for dry cleaners.
What I don’t have within walking distance is a store selling a complete array of office supplies, however I can pick up printer paper and the like at the Sav-On drugstore. Office Depot and Staples killed the mom ‘n pop store down the street, and both the superstores are about 3 miles away.
So is this counter-intuitive or what — the Los Angeles area is winning the walkability race? Let’s hear from other folks in other cities. Coconut Grove? San Francisco? New York schlepers? So far, 77 is the number to beat.
72 out of 100 for Conrad, Montana.