Comments on: A Walkable Neighborhood

By: Tyler Karaszewski

Tyler Karaszewski — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 00:32:01 +0000

The only place I’ve ever lived that I’d really consider “walkable” in the sense that you could get away without using a car unless you were actually going out of town was San Francisco. *everything* was within half a mile, except work. That was four and a half miles across town, which I biked.

I *still* didn’t find walking to the grocery store to be acceptable. It was under half a mile to the grocery store, but try walking for 15 minutes carrying more than two bags of groceries. You can’t. Your fingers will fall off if you try to carry four, and you physically can’t really carry more than that. Try buying a twelve pack of diet coke and two bottles of wine, it makes it even harder.

I’m not sure it’s even an interesting metric unless your goal is specifically to *not* own a car. If you *do* have a car, you can easily choose appropriate forms of transportation based on your destination and time constraints. I drive most places, but walk to the beach, or ride my bike to go surfing. Actually, the most walkable destinations from my house are all beaches, but there are a lot of bike-able shops and restaurants, but I still usually drive.

By: Lane

Lane — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 13:15:30 +0000

I walk around our neighborhood every once in a while. Mostly when I’m terribly, terribly restless. I usually wind up walking to Freddy’s. On my walks, I always dream of finding a great bakery to pick up a loaf of fresh bread and a sweet treat of some sort. On a side note, have you been up to that new Moto Pizza? The building looks interesting, but I’ve yet dared to stop by.

By: Josh

Josh — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 19:51:39 +0000

Hmmm….Sheila and I live one block south of Courtney and Andrew, but Walk Score rated our house a 58 — a full ten point discrepancy.

By: Fascination Place » Walkability

Fascination Place » Walkability — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 18:02:56 +0000

[...] A few months ago I wrote about how I’ve been walking to more places near my house this year, and later how walking to get lunch was a nice fringe benefit of working from home. Now J.D. Roth has written his own entry on walkable neighborhoods. [...]

By: Nick

Nick — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 17:42:44 +0000

My apartment received a score walkability score of 71. But, like Lisa, I don’t think much of the rating system. There is a school 0.21 miles from me. But, the Portland Chinese School isn’t really relevant to me. And Tibet A Gift may have books, but again, not of much interest to me as a bookstore. The nearest theater, which I had never heard of, is 0.73 miles away. A google search reveals it is an adult theater. Hmm…

By: jdroth

jdroth — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 16:23:40 +0000

Ha! Mackenzie, your house should have a negative walk score. :)

By: mac

mac — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 16:11:27 +0000

Our house got a walk score of……”0″! Ha!

By: Brett McKay

Brett McKay — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 03:51:39 +0000

My wife and I are living in Montpelier, VT until October. It scored a 75 out of 100, so it’s very walkable. It’s been a pleasant change from the unwalkable sprawl of Tulsa. The cooler weather is a bonus, too.

We walk into town all the time. It takes about 10 minutes to get anywhere downtown. Because I’ve been walking more, I’ve lost some weight and saved some gas.

By: Jethro

Jethro — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 00:49:52 +0000

Our neighborhood gets a score of 22 — not so good. If we had sidewalks down to Safeway (.61 miles away), it might be a different story — but city hall cares more about pandering to the developers than they do about actually planning out a city that makes sense for its inhabitants. And this is Molalla after all, where walking a few steps to take your shopping cart to the corral is too much of an effort for most.

By: Lisa

Lisa — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 22:55:40 +0000

Walk Score is weird. It pulled up businesses in my neighborhood that are completely forgettable and overlooked the obvious. Why is a co-op preschool the only school listed, when our elementary is 2-1/2 blocks away? Why is a mini-mart that sells soda and cigs considered a grocery store? Our walk score is 52, but I’m with the calculator.