You may want to invest in a good pair of walking shoes, because we will all be walking a lot more in the near future.
The website Walkscore.com lets you input an address and calculate a score for a neighborhood based on how close it is to grocery stores, restaurants, entertainment, schools, parks and a host of other amenities. The results are listed under their respective categories on the left side of the screen along with their distance in miles. Scores range from zero (Driving only — you can only walk to your car) to 100 ("Walker's Paradise").
Click on an entry and it will show you where it is located on the (Google) map, as well as provide a bubble complete with an address, phone number and a clickable link to a Google search of that entry.
Walkscore.com is especially helpful if you are moving to a new neighborhood because it helps to know the likelihood of being able to leave the gas-guzzler (aren't they all nowadays?) at home and walk.
My own Pinellas Point neighborhood got a meager score of 51, which means that some places are close by, but a car or public transportation is still required for most trips. I could easily walk down the street to a restaurant or a drugstore, but if I was feeling picky I would need the car.
On the upside I did discover a number of restaurants in my area I didn't know of that are within easy walking or biking distance. On the downside, plenty of the listings were for places in downtown St. Petersburg, about seven miles away, that may be within walking distance by European standards but that I wouldn't walk to myself often.
Another major drawback, and a factor that could seriously affect walkability, is that the ratings don't take crime statistics into account when factoring the scores. The site searches under plenty of relevant categories that would be moot if the neighborhood isn't safe enough to walk around in.
With gas prices on the rise, however, it certainly helps to know if your new neighborhood is walkable.
(photo by alexandralee).
This article appears in Jun 11-17, 2008.