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Join CNU!Be a Part of the Movement»»» Walk Score Announces America's Most Walkable Neighborhoods
Submitted by joel.vanderweele on Thu, 07/17/2008 - 2:48pm
Today Walk Score unveiled its rankings of the 2,508 most walkable neighborhoods in the United States. This is a great resource from Walk Score, and a fun one to boot. See how your neighborhood matches up to the most walkable neighborhoods in the country.
Check out your neighborhood's walkability and the Walk Score methodology here.
Read the Market Watch report on the rankings
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Changing the Public Mind
This is a really incredible tool to help bring the concepts of walkability more to the forefront in the public mind. The maps are really a great starting point for urbanists looking for a home or wondering where the more vibrant areas of a city are when traveling. I hope these maps will eventually be expanded to the suburbs to illustrate how all suburbs are not created equal (and also so I can find out which ones are worth a train trip).
Walk Score's algorithm calculates the walkability of an address based on the density and diversity of nearby amenities. So if you live somewhere with lots of different choices for your daily needs within a few blocks, then your Walk Score will be very high. If you're missing a few things -- say there's no grocery store or library nearby -- then your Walk Score will be lower. While it doesn't factor in things like transit and street design, a shortcoming they're up-front about and explain very well for the general public (http://www.walkscore.com/how-it-doesnt-work.shtml), the local amenities in a place are very telling of the habits of the community. It seems very unlikely that a place where everyone drives would accidentally get the perfect mix of amenities within short walking distance.
Walking and Transit
On July 30 and 31, 2008 on the Pop-u-list listserv, there was an extended discussion about walking and transit. Even though it was under the thread titled 'NU Bumper Sticker' (listservs are not unduly constrained by logic),it was quite insightful.