Comments on: Our Neighborhood Walk Score

By: Your Kamloops...

Your Kamloops... — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 22:43:43 +0000

How Walkable is your (potential) Neighborhood……

Through David Drucker’s Loud Murmurs Blog in Vancouver, I found a great little site called Walk Score that allows folks to get some idea of how walkable different neighborhood are. It’s only one tool I would rely on, but still…

By: Sandra

Sandra — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 10:45:16 +0000

My walk score is just 20 so as you see my present neighborhood
is not very walkable. This service can be especially useful
for those who are going to buy a house cause it can help to
estimate a particular location. But how often do we walk nowadays?
I ve found one more service called drive score at
http://drivescore.fizber.com/ With it one can see how close
establishments are by car. Homes are often located in an
area where restaurants, libraries, grocery stores,
hospitals and other businesses are easier to get to by car than on foot.

By: Raul

Raul — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 23:30:11 +0000

I’m sort of surprised at how low Mount Pleasant’s Walk Score is. 78 doesn’t seem like a lot. But its’ good though!

By: David Drucker

David Drucker — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 18:24:02 +0000

Hi Jonathon – It is interesting how quality of life seems to be linked with such a simple thing as walking. On the other hand, one person’s stroll to a café is another’s Urban Nightmare. Some people would describe a good walk as one along the beach or in a lush, wilderness trail. Perhaps the whole walk score thing needs to have 2 ‘flavors’; one for people who like to walk in the city, and one for those who like to walk in the countryside.

I know what you mean about driving. It always makes me laugh (and perhaps get a little angry) to see all of those car commercials, where the voice-over extols the pleasures of driving, and we see the car they are selling sailing over nearly empty roads, past attractive landscapes or city scenes (depending on the demographic). You never see much traffic (except for that goofy one for the car that bounces over it when the passengers get enough oomph behind it). Now, I expect we’ll be seeing a lot of commercials for how much gasoline a model saves – but again, it will not be stuck in traffic, where (except for the Prius, at present), you burn the most fossil fuel as the engine idles. The whole ‘car culture’ is still here, nevertheless.

By: Jonathon Narvey

Jonathon Narvey — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 05:25:01 +0000

I can’t imagine living in a neighborhood with a low “walk score”. Oh, wait. I can. I lived there. It sucked.

Yup. I have to be in the thick of things. Besides, it’s better for the environment. And I hate driving anyway.